Change for the Future
by Uzumaki Kana
Summary: Things had a weird way of granting wishes. She would change, or everything would go to hell. Self Insert as Fem!Luffy.
1. Prologue

**Dammit, it happened again. I tried to hold out for as long as I could, but the plot bunnies got to me after months. I actually like this more than my other stories, though, so maybe it won't crash and burn. Hopefully. Maybe. Comments would be appreciated.**

 **Obvious disclaimer is obvious.**

* * *

 **Prologue**

She wanted to change. She wanted to become someone who, deep inside, would never be her. She wanted to be strong. She wanted to be honest and loyal. Naïve and brave. Energetic and cheerful. She wanted to be a completely different person.

She wanted to have great friends who would risk their lives for her and hers for theirs. Friends who could read her like an open book, friends who she could fight with and have fun with and go on adventures with, and no matter what happened at the end of the day, they would laugh.

She wanted a family she was close to, family whom she could confide in for help and problems that she wouldn't be able to talk about with her friends - family that could tuck her in at night and tell her stories; family that she could talk to, family that would want to protect her with all their might. And she would want to protect them too.

She wanted to be honest with herself. She wanted to feel like she didn't have to hide herself in the world – a world that judged you for everything you did. She wanted to face the future with her head held high and her back straight. She wanted to love what she had and not envy for what she didn't need.

She wanted to be all of these things to be true and more. But things had a weird way of granting your wishes.

Monkey D. Luffy was incredibly selfish and at that same time incredibly selfless. He was inhumanly strong, and guarded his nakama with a passion as bright as the sun. He didn't care if he had to fight the entire world itself – if that meant protecting his friends, he would do it without a second thought.

He was so naïve, yet so wise. Most of the time he acted like a toddler, other times he was as fierce as a lion. He ate an ungodly amount of food in a single day – enough to make a regular person explode – and conversed with marines like they were just another person in a crowd; he judged people on the simplest things and sometimes didn't judge them at all. If you gave him meat, you were his new best friend.

His family and friends cherished him, even though he was a bit tiring to be around. They could never imagine a world without him, and he couldn't imagine a world without them. To him being alone equaled a fate worse than death, but he would undoubtedly, in the end, move forward.

He aspired to be Pirate King just like millions of others. It could takes years or days or months, but he had an unyielding belief that he could do it despite the fierce competition on the Grand Line and the daunting forces that were the World Government and the Navy. Even his own grandfather disapproved of his dreams, but they loved each other all the same.

He had that same faith in his nakama that they would someday fulfill their own dreams, and he would be with them every step of the way. They would stand beside him even in the darkest of days, even in great moments of despair and hopelessness.

As captain, his crew's lives were on his head. But he relied on them as heavily as they relied on him, and he saved them from their loneliness and strife. The moment each of them joined him, they understood what it meant to be nakama, and strived to support and care for each other.

He saved countless lives and ruined thousands of others, yet all of it was for the people he respected. It didn't matter if you were a marine or a pirate or a bounty hunter; if you had a dream you were chasing after, you were his equal. After all, he was chasing a nearly impossible dream; how could yours be any different?

He rose from the weakest of the four Blues and became a world famous rookie, one of the Eleven Supernovas, and a part of the Worst Generation. He infiltrated and escaped Impel Down and became a huge figure in the Battle of Marineford just to save his brother.

He shook the world for the brother he wanted to protect, the nakama he wanted to be with, and the dream he wanted to fulfill.

Even though he was barely an adult and still acted like a child, you couldn't help but love him and laugh with him and respect him, because he was the man who would become the Pirate King. He was the man who bore the hat of Gol D. Roger.

She didn't want to be Monkey D. Luffy. She didn't want to be him.

Rather, she supposed, she didn't want to be _her_. Because whether she liked it or not, the day she popped out of the Darkness-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named and someone declared, "It's a girl!" she became Monkey D. Luffy, daughter of the Revolutionary Dragon, surrogate sister of Portgas D. Ace, granddaughter of Garp the Fist, and future _female_ captain of the Straw Hat Pirates.

She wasn't sure if she would be able to do everything he had done – be a leader, save two countries, declare war against the _government_ – because she had been weak, diffident, cowardly, and a follower. The simple pressures in life had depressed her and pushed her towards the bottom, where all she could do was look up as she threw around a smile and laughed with the people around her until it all ended.

But everything would happen in years; she had time. Surely by then she would have changed. Surely by then she would be strong.

Because things had a weird way of granting wishes. She _would_ change, or everything would go to hell.

* * *

Monkey D. Garp loved his grandchildren.

It was a simple fact. Luffy was his flesh-and-blood grandchild. Ace was his adopted grandkid, the former son of the Pirate King. That little blond boy (to be honest, he kinda just popped out of nowhere) was their surrogate brother, so he became his grandkid too. He might scare the living daylights out of them every time he comes to visit – they had to become a strong marine one day after all – but it was all so that they could survive in this "Great Pirate Era" that had emerged after Roger's death.

So what if they screamed every time he brought out his Fist of Love? He was _disciplining_ them. He couldn't let the kids run around with the idea that they would be pirates one day, so they needed some sense knocked into their heads before they were killed by some weakling out on the sea. They were going to be marines one day, so they couldn't run off and start fights with the government. Grandfather knows best, after all.

He ignored the fact that they were the only family he had left, and he didn't want them to leave one way or the other somehow. His wife had died years ago, and he had stopped mourning as soon as he laid eyes on the cute, cuddly baby that was Dragon. But then that cute, cuddly baby of a son grew up and ran off to create and lead the Revolutionary Army (while somehow getting it on with a girl and out popped out Luffy). Then somehow a new cute and cuddly baby was dumped into his care, a baby boy that belonged to his rival (he had no idea when that guy got it on, but whatever) and he had an orphaned, newborn child that was relying on him for survival. Three years later he discovered that somehow his previously cute and cuddly son had got it on with a girl via the form of another newborn baby, so he had to learn to protect Luffy, too.

When he visited Luffy in Foosha Village after leaving the kid in Makino's care for a few months, he came back to discover that Red-Haired Shanks had poisoned his grandchild's mind. So he took Luffy to Dadan's place, far away from pirate-inspiring… well, pirates, and introduced Luffy to Ace.

Then a few years later after he had dumped Luffy at Dadan's place (seriously, what was with all of the dumping these days?) and came back to train his grandchildren, there was that random blond kid who declared that he wanted to be a pirate too, so he was unconditionally his new grandkid (not that he lasted long – no, he wasn't crying! Shut up!).

He worried about his grandchildren, but he worried about Luffy the most. Not Ace, the unknown son of Roger, who hated anyone other than his friends and family with a passion. He was worried about his granddaughter, who, when she thought no one was looking, had an unnaturally weary and old look on her face as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders – or it could be the aftermath of his training sessions, but he went with the idea that something was wrong with her.

The first time he brought it up, she tilted her head in confusion (a motion that suddenly seemed too unreal) and asked what he was talking about. So he left her alone and hoped Ace and Sabo – yes, he did know the kid's name – would be able to help her somehow. Unlike him, they spent nearly every hour of every day with her, so they would figure something out or distract her from whatever was bothering her.

But no matter what made Luffy sad, when he learned the cause of her problems he would punch the ever-living daylights outta the guy. Because family was family, and he would always love his grandchildren.

Never mind the fact that he couldn't help but fawn over her cuteness ever since she learned how to make the puppy-dog face.

* * *

 **If you couldn't tell, this is an self-insert as a female Monkey D. Luffy. I tried to make Luffy's previous life as ambiguous as I could (given that I based it a little bit off me), so I won't make references to her specifics about her previous life very often. I also tried to make Garp's part a little funny, because I couldn't help it (he's just so silly sometimes).**

 **Unlike my other stories, I do have somewhat of a plan, outline thing for this story. It's mostly going to feature this new Luffy's perspective as she starts to change and become who she truly wants to be (which isn't canon!Luffy, exactly), so expect Luffy to be OOC (which is kind of a given, seeing as how it's an SI as Luffy...). For me, it's often easier to write based on how inspired I am, so the chapters about Luffy's early years will probably come quicker than the actual canon events. In fact, as I'm typing this right now, I've already written up part of the next chapter. Basically, don't expect updates in an orderly fashion.**

 **I'm not sure if there's going to be pairings, but don't count on it (I've always liked the idea of Fem!LuffyxZoro, but I'm not good at romance, so it's very, VERY unlikely).**

 **However, like my other stories, there is a high chance that if I find myself unable to come up with more ideas (or find myself hating how I've written it) I won't continue it (it is my story after, all). As I've already said, I would really appreciate comments, perhaps even suggestions (especially for when canon starts).**

 **Concerning Japanese phrases, I dislike it when authors use it in their stories and expect you to understand it. So I will only use them when absolutely necessary and I will always tell you what they mean in my author's notes. If I happen to forget so, please tell me (same goes with spelling, grammar errors, plot holes, etc.).**

 **I'm not expecting this to get a lot of attention; it's mainly my muse forcing me to post this, after all. Reviews would encourage me, though. I'll shut up now, this is getting too long. Jesus I'm shaking in anxiety.**

 **Cover image belongs to** **mitch0o on zerochan.**

 **Nakama: A powerful word for friend or comrade. Frequently used in shonen anime & manga.**


	2. Chapter 1

**I did say that I had already started on the next chapter (came kinda quick, huh?). This is just an introductory chapter to the new Luffy and Shanks.**

 **Obvious disclaimer is obvious.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

When Luffy realized who she was, she was utterly terrified. She cried constantly, and was therefore subjected to her new grandfather's "Coochie coochie coo"s and the embarrassment of having her diaper changed by an old man. In her previous life, she was barely starting to get the hang of becoming more independent, and now she was back at Round 1. Although, looking back on it, she was slightly proud to admit that she was able to greatly weaken the Vice Admiral, Garp the Fist, when she was less than a year old.

But she didn't want to be Monkey D. Luffy. He did so much, and if she did nothing everything could go wrong. She didn't even know if she would be able to live up to his standards. What if something went wrong? What if she messed up, and someone that was supposed to live, died?

 _What if she couldn't save Ace? What if she couldn't save her nakama?_

Eventually she had to accept her fate – rather, she greatly denied that she was _that_ Monkey D. Luffy, and she was probably born into an alternate universe or something and she would never have to worry about all this "One Piece" stuff. So she carried on without a care in the world as her grandfather nearly beat her to death with his training regimens.

What frustrated her the most was her inability to understand the language. In her past life, the only conditioning she had gotten to Japanese was through anime and manga, but what she wanted most to do was _read_ and _speak_. She hardly had a chance to learn because of her gramps, and whenever he was gone and she was left with Makino, she came to the horrid realization that she had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – the dreaded **ADHD**. Now she could understand why Luffy-kun was such a dolt in canon.

Whenever Makino brought out the one-sentence-per-page children's books, all she could focus on was the sparkly pictures or the squiggly lines or the butterfly that was flying past the window. Sometimes she would just fall asleep in the middle of the story, and she'd wake up in bed hungry as hell. And when she actually started paying attention, she would start to fidget and then all she wanted to do was go outside and run after that butterfly. Her mind wanted to read, but her body wanted to _play_. She wanted to understand, but at the same time she just wanted to have _fun_.

Then when she went out and satisfied her inner child's desire, her stomach would _growl_. She'd have to eat five meals per day just to function normally, and by the end of the day she could barely understand anything more than the day before. She wanted to say that she was still a kid and she just needed food to grow, but on the inside she knew that this condition would last forever. Poor, poor Sanji…

Learning the language took years, and she knew barely enough to understand what people were saying. Fortunately (or unfortunately), ever since being reborn, she changed from a person who could learn from text to a person who needed to learn through a hands-on experience. It was a weird change, but she couldn't help it every time she twitched while trying to get through a **five page book**.

As the years passed by, she figured that she was actually kinda glad for Garp's training sessions. Because if this was the real One Piece world, then she'd need all the strength and skills she could get in order to fill Luffy-kun's shoes. However, she couldn't give up hope that her new life could be an alternate universe and that canon would never happen.

Unfortunately, her hopes were shattered the day Red Haired Shanks arrived at the harbor.

* * *

Six year old Monkey D. Luffy was enjoying her third meal of the day, courtesy of Makino, owner of the Party Bar. She expected it to be another fun yet frustrating day where she would attempt to read and write, give up, chase butterflies outside, then come back in for her fourth and fifth meal. Makino would take a bath with her, brush her shoulder-length hair (she could never get rid of her fondness for long hair, future King of the Pirates or not), run around some more while her surrogate mother forced pajamas onto her, and then go to bed.

Today was not one of those days.

"Pirates have arrived! Pirates are coming!"

Luffy flinched, and nearly dropped her glass of orange juice. It couldn't be… it was probably just some random pirate crew! Some newbies that were looking to make a name for themselves or running low on sake! Yes, they would come to the bar, order a dozen barrels of sake, and then leave! Surely, it wasn't Shanks and his crew… what were the chances that one of the Emperors would come to such a tiny village in the East Blue? It was going to be a regular day, after all – there was no way it was Shanks! Right? No, she was _not_ panicking! Shut up!

However, she couldn't help being curious. Ever since she encountered the series "One Piece," she held a great fascination for the free, adventurous pirates (she blamed Oda, that sneaky bastard) and their lives on the sea. So what if she secretly wanted to see them up close and talk with them? She was pretty sure it wasn't Shanks, so she could go talk with them, right?

Makino shooed her upstairs, since the pirates would undoubtedly head towards the bar for some sake and food after their voyage from… wherever. Her body started to twitch, and she slowly inched back towards the stairs. **_Pirates_** were downstairs, for Pete's sake! What were they like? Were they really as fun-loving as Oda described them as? What kind of adventures did they go on? Did they fight strong people? Did they go treasure-hunting? Oh, she wanted to know _so bad_ –

"…would like ten barrels of sake!"

Luffy flinched and backtracked a couple of steps. That sounded a lot like Shanks – but maybe it wasn't Shanks. It could just be a guy who sounded a lot like Shanks, right? So she was sure she could sneak a peek, because it was definitely not Shanks. Then she could learn what it was like to be a pirate.

Cheers and music sounded from downstairs, making her want to look even more. They seemed to be having fun – was it a lot of fun? Was being a pirate _super_ fun? The sounds of laughter and clinking plates invited her more than ever, and Luffy found herself bounding downstairs for the most exciting moment of her six-year old life.

As she entered the room, she noticed several things at once. Everyone, aside from her and Makino, was male. Most of them had a glass of sake in their hands, were telling jokes, or were drunkenly doing stupid drunk stuff that made them look happy. Many of them were dancing or eating or drinking. They were partying. They looked happy. The thing that she focused on, however, was the red-haired man sitting at the bar, eating a plate of meat.

She focused on the straw hat on his head and the scars on his face. She could see the happiness in his eyes and glee on his face whenever he glanced back at the people in the bar. Luffy started to shake; this was, undoubtedly, Red Haired Shanks - the man that signaled the start of everything.

She wanted to run. She wanted to cry. She wanted to black out and forget everything she saw. She wanted to hide under the covers of her bed, she wanted to run to Makino, she wanted _everything to stop_. But when that man's head turned to look at her in curiosity, her mind spoke the truth.

"Are you a pirate?!" The excitement in her voice was unexpected. She thought she would speak with trepidation and she would stutter and be afraid because he was the starting line. Her body tensed, waiting for his answer. At this point, Luffy wasn't sure if she was scared anymore.

Shanks turned to her and grinned, and she jumped a little. "Who're you, little lady?"

Did he just avoid the question? No, no, he was just curious. He couldn't talk to her without knowing her name, after all. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be a pirate!" Did she just – okay, maybe she was on board with this pirate thing more than she acknowledged. Since when did her past sneak up behind her, yearning for adventure like the bastard it was?

"A pirate, huh? What makes you want to be a pirate?"

She was not expecting this question. But deep down inside, she knew the answer – who cared if it was incredibly similar to Luffy-kun's reasoning, but this was what she wanted. All because– "Pirates are free, and they go on fun adventures with friends and I want to be free too and go on adventures with friends!" It all came out in a rush, and she found her cheeks growing bright red in embarrassment and her chest heaving from speaking so fast, but this was how she felt, no matter how scared she was of the future – her _destiny_ (as cliché as it sounded).

She didn't notice everyone's attention on her as Shanks's smile grew, and he patted her on the head (she pouted, because she wasn't a kid – at least she wasn't supposed to be) and told her, "My name is Shanks, Luffy, and I'm the captain of the Red Hair Pirates." Her eyes grew unconsciously. This was a real pirate, Shanks was a real person, and, well…

"But you're the only one with red hair!" She pointed out. Dammit, there went her ADHD again. She really did wonder why they were called that, though, maybe it's because whenever people saw the crew they thought of Shanks? Or were they all red-heads before and then dyed their hair a different color? She couldn't tell if the crew's hair was dyed or not, but maybe they killed so many people that their hair became red with blood? Did they really like tomatoes? Maybe they liked red apples. She liked red apples, too, but there was no way she'd share food with them in a million years. It was _her_ food after all, and if she didn't eat enough she'd go hungry and then she'd die of _starvation_ and _they were here to steal her food weren't they, there was no way she'd let them take her food–_

Shanks's hand kept a hold on her head as her eyes started to spin from the exertion of thinking too much, and she nearly lost her balance. Everyone chuckled and she pouted again. She hated the fact that thinking hurt now, especially since thinking was important. Maybe that was why Luffy-kun didn't think that much.

But she found that even though there was the story of "One Piece" pressuring her to be Luffy-kun, she wanted to be a pirate because she _wanted_ to be (also because she really didn't want to be a marine with her gramps…) and she smiled back at Shanks, because he would be – no, he _was_ – her friend, and maybe he could help her realize that just because she was Monkey D. Luffy, it didn't mean that she had to be Luffy-kun. She sure hoped that she'd think like that one day.

…But for now, she would follow canon as closely as she could. Because if she slipped up, who knows what would happen? The future of many people depended on her, after all, and everything went right the first time. She wanted everything to stay right. She didn't want anybody to die.

 _So selfish, you're so selfish._

* * *

 **The new Luffy is very paranoid and high-strung; well, how would you react if you were reborn as Monkey D. Luffy? Especially with this knowledge of the future? There's a lot of pressure that comes with being the main character of a shonen manga, after all. It's not exactly a walk in the park.** **And even though this Luffy wants to maintain canon, the story is mainly going to be from her point of view, so what happens will (hopefully) appear to be different from canon. (Eventually her opinion will change, but for now that's how she wants it to be. Plus, she can't remember every single detail, so some things are bound to change.) Also, Luffy is acting childish mainly because of the childish tendencies that came with being reborn and she's being treated as a child, so she can't help but act like one.**

 **This SI-Fem!Luffy wants to be a pirate because one thing that everyone learns upon reading/watching One Piece is that being a pirate means being free. Since she was born as Monkey D. Luffy, she forces herself to one day become like canon!Luffy, but she doesn't really want to be him. She wants to be who she wants to be, not what she's telling herself to be. So she wants that freedom so that she can do what she wants (it's kinda complicated). Also, there is that pressure Garp puts on both canon! and this Luffy to be a marine, which means having to obey someone else, listen to their orders, etc. and she wouldn't get a chance to discover herself.**

 **I went with the fact that Luffy has ADHD because his attention switches to the simplest things so quickly that it wouldn't be surprising if canon!Luffy actually did have it. (Remember that time in the Fishman Island Arc when he stopped in the middle of fighting and went to admire General Franky? And when he focused on Genzo's pinwheel instead of what the marines around him were saying?)**

 **Next chapter is going to start the beginning of canon events (the mountain bandits, the straw hat, possibly Ace, etc.).**

 **Things I'd like to know (because posting things online tends to make me feel self-conscious): Do you think I use comma's too much? Do you think the new Luffy is growing/changing/realizing things about herself too fast? Is the way I write too fast-paced? And feel free to tell me if I got anything about ADHD wrong.**

 **Use of 'Luffy-kun': -kun is a common term in Japanese usually used for males, especially for close relationships. It is diminutive, however showcases affection towards the person named. The new Luffy uses 'Luffy-kun' to refer to canon!Luffy.**

 **Sake: Alcohol**

 **Have a nice day!**

 **\- Kana-chan**


	3. Chapter 2

**A longer chapter, because I wanted to get over Shanks's part quickly and also because I wanted one. Huzzah for more dialogue!**

 **Obvious disclaimer is obvious.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

Needless to say, Luffy and Shanks became great friends over the course of a year, although he was more like an annoying older brother than her first friend. She forgot about how scared she was before she met him, and got to know the man as a person, not a super-strong, fictional character. He laughed like a human, he got angry like a human, he joked like a human, but most importantly, he was her _friend_. Every time they left on a voyage Luffy found herself missing the Red Hair Pirates more and more, and she wanted to go with them just once to see if her dream was really worth it, if becoming a pirate was really the answer to her problems.

"You? You can't even swim, Anchor! You'd fall overboard and drown!"

Ah, the nickname. She hated that nickname, which came about the day she and the crew decided to go swimming at the beach together. She had waded into the deeper waters only to realize that her body was incapable of floating, and she sunk like a rock. She had struggled to keep her head above water using what she had learned in her previous life, but her body couldn't match the movements in her head. Benn, who had been relaxing on the shore, had abandoned whatever he was doing to dive into the ocean and rescue her. Ever since then, Shanks and some his more teasing men have taken to calling her names such as "Anchor" or "Hammer." Whenever they called her that her hackles raised, her face turned bright red, and she protested that _yes, she did know how to swim_ and _she would swim one day_ even though Luffy knew that it was very unlikely, especially since she had to eat the Gum Gum Fruit very soon.

So she had to prove that she wasn't a weak little kid somehow. Luffy-kun tried to persuade them that he was a man by stabbing himself in the cheek, which she didn't really want to do. Maybe they thought she was too girly and therefore not strong enough, but she didn't want to _stab herself in the face_ to prove it. But that scar was basically Luffy-kun's trademark; she couldn't be Luffy-kun without that scar. So, based off her stupid reasoning, the seven-year old found herself standing on the bow of a pirate ship with a knife in her hand, standing tall in front of the Red Hair Pirates (she had managed to steal it out of Makino's kitchen, and afterwards Makino made sure she stayed _far_ away from sharp tools ever since then). If you told her that her knees were shaking slightly that day, she would've denied it. A lot.

But now she could understand why Luffy-kun did it; the pirates would someday have to leave for good, and she wanted to spend more time with them before it happened. She wanted them to remember her clearly and proudly, even if every time they did they would think, "Ah, Luffy? The girl who stabbed herself in the face?" Because then at least they would look back on it and laugh at her idiocy and think of her fondly.

So before she could think through it more clearly and remember that _it was going to wound enough to scar_ , she plunged the knife into the flesh under her left eye, and there wasn't any time other than that that she **really** wished she knew how to curse in Japanese.

" ** _OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!_** "

" _WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING LUFFY?!"_

* * *

"Cheers! To Luffy's bravery!"

By now Luffy was used to the constant parties Shanks threw and not surprised that there was another one occurring; even though he used the most ludicrous reasons to start them, she enjoyed having fun with the crew. They couldn't be pirates if all they did was laze around all day, after all. Partying with these pirates – despite the fact that she wasn't allowed to do "adult stuff" with them – took her mind off of the future and kept her attention in the present.

She ignored the fact that her bandaged cheek was still twitching and her eyes still had some tears at the corners, and told Shanks proudly, "I-It didn't hurt at all! So let me go on an adventure with you!"

"LIAR! How could you be so stupid?!" Shanks scolded. "Purposefully harming yourself… are you a masochist?"

"A what? Magic?" Luffy tilted her head, like every time she was sincerely confused.

Shanks shook his head. "…Never mind. But threatening yourself won't get me to bring you with us!"

Luffy frowned. "I'm not theate- threetin- WHATEVER – to make you take me!" She stood up on her stool so that she could appear taller. "I'm strong! A small stab won't hurt me, so I can handle one of your trips! I'm going to be a pirate too!" She wasn't sure, but sometimes she wondered if she was trying so hard to persuade him so that she could run away from the future, even though she knew how important it was.

"You couldn't be a pirate!" the captain joked. "You'd be useless when you fall overboard!"

"What do you mean by _when_?! I won't fall overboard!" she roared. "Plus, I'm a good fighter! My punch is as strong as a pistol!" It ought to be, what with her ji-chan's hell-called-training. Ah, Gum Gum Pistol, you would be so helpful right about now…

"A pistol, huh…?"

" _WHAT'S WITH THAT TONE?!_ "

"What's wrong, Luffy? Being a pirate is great!" Lucky Roo cut in, carrying around a piece of meat. "The sea is far and wide; nothing is better than the freedom of a pirate!" Her eyes widened in amazement. He sounded so sure of himself, so it had to be true, right? Right?

"Stop giving Luffy the wrong ideas, Roo," Shanks told his crewmate. "She couldn't handle being a pirate at this age."

"What do you mean by that?! I can take care of myself; I'm not a little kid!" She was never a child in the first place, so why did he keep insisting that she couldn't be a pirate?!

"A kid is still a kid, Luffy," he told her. "Maybe in ten years I'd reconsider your offer, but for now there's no way you're sailing ten kilometers from the shore."

"Dammit, Apple-Head! I already told you that I'm not a kid!"

Unfazed, the red head passed her a glass of orange juice. "Don't be mad, it's unbecoming of a lady. Here's some juice."

She grinned with glee; Makino's juice was the best! "Oh, thanks!" And she started gulping it down.

" _Pfft…_ You really are a kid!" Shanks laughed. There were even tears pouring down his face, the bastard!

" _Shut up_ , Apple-Head! What's wrong with a pirate drinking juice?!"

"Pirates only drink water and sake, An~chor!" Her face grew red again, and she had to walk away before she had to murder Apple-Head. As much as she loved him like the friend she never had, there was the breaking point where she couldn't stand his jokes anymore and had to take a break from his antics.

"Luffy, try to understand the captain," Shanks's first mate said as she wandered towards him. Out of the entire crew, Benn was one of the few that knew there was something _more_ to Luffy than being idiotic, reckless, temperamental, and childish, and often did his best to treat her more like an equal. That was the reason why she usually went to him after conversing with Shanks for more than five minutes, and he was a lot of help when it came to trying to learn more Japanese. (His cigarette smelled disgusting though, so she did her best to stay five feet away from him at all times. Or would that be a meter? Damn unit conversion.)

" _He's_ the one not being understanding," she pou–  frowned (she didn't pout, dammit). "He knows how badly I want to see what it's like – can't I go on _one_ trip? Just one?"

"Our captain knows that while a pirate's life can very interesting, it's also incredibly dangerous," he answered. "He doesn't want to see you hurt. He's not purposefully teasing you to stop you from being a pirate."

"As if! Nowadays, all he does is call me names!" she countered. Her point was immediately proven by the "Ham~mer!" that drifted in from the bar counter. "SEE?!"

Makino called out to her before the argument could continue. "Luffy, do you want to eat something?"

"Yes, thank you!" she answered, and rushed back towards the counter. God, how long had it been since her second meal that day? Three hours? Three hours was too long, dammit, she needed some nourishment _now_.

"Luffy's stomach must cost you a lot, Makino-san," Shanks commented.

"Iwl pae herr baek!" Luffy said with her mouth half full. Geez, it was hard to eat like a slob.

"Oh, how so?" Thankfully, Shanks was somehow able to understand slob-speech. It must have been because of all the slobs in his crew.

She swallowed. "I'll pay her back with the treasure I find when I'm a pirate!" She was sure one block of pure Skypiean gold could settle her tab…

Makino, the kind woman she was, giggled and said, "I'll be waiting!" Luffy grinned back at her.

Then she paused in her eating, and asked Shanks The Question, like every time Shanks and the crew came back.

"Again, Luffy?" Shanks smiled; he knew why Luffy asked The Question so often. "It's nearly been a year since we've started using this town as our base… I plan on going on a couple more trips, and then we'll start heading north."

"A couple more times, huh…?" Luffy repeated forlornly. That meant that she'd be all alone again, and she would have to prepare for Ace and Sabo. But Shanks… he'd grown on her. They all had, and with them around she didn't have to worry about canon as much as when she had much more time to herself – when it was just her and Makino. Ever since Shanks and his crew arrived, all she had thought about was when the Red Hairs were coming back and how she'd get them to take her with them this time. She thought about the fun times she had when they were there and the stories they told her: the sea kings, the marines, the lazy days, the everlasting parties, all of it seemed exciting. But soon all of it would be gone.

Dimly noticing that Shanks was distracted, Luffy took this chance to go to the treasure box on the counter (who the hell leaves a devil fruit lying out in the open, anyways?) and ate the swirly-fruit-thing inside as comfort food. She nearly gagged at the taste, but it was just bearable enough for her to swallow and continue chewing. Thank the heavens for whatever deity that gifted Luffy with able-to-eat-nearly-anything-itis!

Then the doors to the bar were smashed open by a loud kick, and Luffy jumped and started choking. She had to pound a fist on her chest several times, and now her eyes were watering. Dammit, she was in the middle of eating food that was incredibly important to the future of the One Piece world! Who the hell– oh… it was the Bandit Bastard! Dammit, she did not want to be traumatized so soon!

"This is what pirates look like, huh?" Bandit Bastard said. "They look pretty stupid." Luffy could feel her temper rising. Shanks may act stupid a lot, but he wasn't _stupid_ stupid! Who did this guy think he was?

The Bandit Bastard walked up to Makino at the counter (bastard better not touch her!). "We're mountain bandits, but we're not gonna start anything. We just want ten barrels of sake."

"I'm really sorry," Makino apologized politely. "But we've just ran out of sake."

"That's strange," B.B. commented rhetorically. "Then what are those pirates drinking? Is it water?"

"It's sake, sir, but that was the last of our stock."

"Sorry," Shanks said good-naturedly. "It looks like we've drunk this place dry. If you don't mind, take the last bottle." He held out a bottle of sake. Unsurprisingly, B.B. merely broke the bottle with a fist – wasting a perfectly good bottle of sake – and therefore splashing the beverage all over Shanks.

 _That idiot!_ Luffy chewed with rage. She knew that Shanks wouldn't do anything, but there was no way anybody was going to humiliate her friend! If it hadn't been for canon, she would've kicked B.B. where the sun didn't shine by now!

"Who do you think I am? One bottle isn't enough for me!" B.B. announced.

Ignoring him, Shanks said, "Oh no, now the floor's all wet." Luffy angrily crunched into her comfort food. _NO, SHE THOUGHT IT WAS ON FIRE! THANKS APPLE-HEAD._

"See this?" B.B. continued, holding up a wanted poster of himself. Who the hell carries their own wanted poster around? "I'm worth 8 million belly. I'm a feared criminal in these parts, and I've killed 56 people." He was bragging now? Luffy could only hold back her comments because of the devil fruit in her mouth, which was slightly unsettling. "Now that you know who I am, you better not mess with us again." Finally, now leave already!

"Sorry about the mess, Makino," Shanks said. "Do you have a mop?" _NOW YOU'RE OFFERING TO CLEAN UP FOR HER?!_

Irritated by the lack of attention, Bandit Bastard pulled out his poor excuse of a sword and slashed up the counter, making more of a mess. "Seems like you enjoy cleaning, so here's some more work for you." Signaling his men, he left with one more insult, "Later, cowards."

Once the bandits were out of hearing range, the entire Red Hair immediately crew burst out laughing. "Our captain looked so silly!" "He messed you up good, captain!" Even Apple-Head started to laugh too! Was it Idiot Day that day?!

" **WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU GUYS?!** " Luffy's temper crashed through the roof; she couldn't _stand_ this nonsense anymore. The Bandit Bastard and his cronies had just insulted their captain – their leader – and they had to gall to laugh at him?! The lowlifes were degrading their friend, yet they just smiled and thought it was funny?! "Are all men this stupid? Do you let every pirate, bandit, and marine you see insult you like that?! Don't you have some sense of pride? Do you let everybody treat your friends like trash!?"

Shanks gave her a knowing look. "I understand how you feel, Luffy. But it was just a bottle of sake; there was no need to start a fight over it."

"You could've scared him! Made him pee his pants! Showed him that he wasn't better than you!" She started heading out. She needed to punch something . "I've had enough of your stupidness for one day! You can make all the excuses you want, but I can't let this go!"

"C'mon, don't just go, Luffy," Shanks whined, grabbing her arm. He probably would've been able to stop her there, but then she continued walking and her arm grew and grew and grew…

"HOLY HELL!" Luffy screamed. She knew it was going to happen, but knowing and _feeling_ were two completely different things! Her entire body felt wrong, and she didn't like it. _Her arm was stretching! It's not supposed to be so long! HER ARM WAS STRETCHING!_ …Was that a new rubber smell? It was smelled disgusting!

Yelps of disbelief sounded out through the entire bar, the captain included. "Her arm is stretching…! It couldn't be…! She didn't…! She _did…!_ "

"CAN YOU LET GO OF MY ARM ALREADY, APPLE-HEAD?!"

* * *

After the realization that Luffy had eaten the Gum Gum Fruit, a huge scolding, and a short lecture on devil fruits, the Red Hair Pirates had to leave on yet another trip. Her nerves were on one of its highest points in her life so far, not only because of the weird feeling her body gave her – she had to take nearly ten baths to get rid of the smell – but also because it was exhilarating. It made everything she did feel different, and she must've spent days just experimenting with her body. She fell down the stairs (that was scary), she jumped into the bath tub (she nearly drowned), she tied herself together (Makino spent a good hour or two untangling her), and she stretched her mouth out and tried to fit as much food in it as she could (she discovered that her throat could stretch too, and binge eating was no longer a dream). She even electrocuted herself, which thankfully didn't hurt.

She was glad to notice that the villagers' opinions of her didn't change much, although the Mayor did seem a bit upset at her new body composition while spouting some stupid stuff about pirates that was stupid. She ignored him.

One day, after running around for hours, trying to get used to her body and trying to find her balance again (rubber had a different mass from human stuff, after all), she eventually made her way back to the Party Bar.

"They've been gone for longer than usual… don't you miss them, Luffy?" Makino asked. Even though Luffy had been enthusiastically running around for the past couple of days, Makino could sense her strangely sour mood.

"Of course I do," Luffy replied, drawing circles on the table with her finger. "I just can't understand them… why wouldn't they want to punch that guy's face in? They insulted their captain!"

"I thought that what they did was pretty cool," Makino offered. "I think that people who can laugh it off after being provoked are pretty brave."

"…Maybe," Luffy conceded. "But it's still– it still makes me angry!"

"Excuse me." Makino and Luffy turned their head towards the entrance. It was the Bandit Bastard! He and his cronies slumped into the chairs and tables as if they owned the place. "What are you waiting for? Bring us some sake!" Makino rushed to fulfill their orders, and Luffy could only glare at thin air, or risk getting Makino caught up in whatever disaster she would start. She had to wait.

"Remember the expression on the pirates' faces the other day?" Luffy bristled. Of all the things to talk about…?

"What a gutless chicken!"

"Did you see the other guys? Talk about disloyal!"

"The captain didn't even resist! He must be a weakling. Wonder why any of them joined in the first place."

"I really wanted to kill that bitch," Bandit Bastard said. "But he wasn't worth killing – after all, pirates are cowards that only know how to act cool."

" _You take that back!_ " Luffy roared, and stood up. Screw waiting for the chance, _now_ she needed to kick the guy where it hurt! "If anyone's a coward, it's you, idiot!"

"Luffy, stop!" Makino pleaded, trying to hold her back.

"What kinda man just goes around acting tough?! To make you look scarier?" She continued. "If anything, _you're_ the one trying to act cool! You could never beat Shanks in a hundred years! All he needs is his pinky finger to kick your butt!"

"Eh?!" Bandit Bastard raised an eyebrow. He then walked up to Luffy and Makino before grabbing Luffy by the hair roughly. She yelped in protest. "I think we need to teach this little lady a lesson," he grinned menacingly, and dragged her out of the bar.

Luffy struggled against the Bandit Bastard's hold on her head; she could see Makino standing at the entrance of the bar, hesitating, and then she suddenly ran off in the direction of the Mayor's home. Luffy wasn't sure what Makino thought the old skinny man could do to the Bastard Bandits at this point, but for now she had to kick these guys' asses… somehow. Maybe if she beat them up Shanks wouldn't have to lose his arm!

B.B. smashed her face into the ground, causing her to bounce up a little. Before she could head-butt the nearest man in the groin, someone else kicked her down and dirt got into her mouth. She was about to spit it out when all of the Bastard Bandits started to kick her – while she was down! That wasn't fair! Strangely, though, it didn't hurt at all, but all of the dirt that was getting in her mouth was disgusting!

Suddenly, the kicking stopped. She looked up to see B.B. peering curiously at her, and she spat on his shoes. His face grimaced in revulsion, and he gave her one last hit to the face, knocking her backwards.

"Looks like blunt attacks don't work," B.B. grinned. "What an interesting body… you'd probably sell for a lot."

Luffy grimaced, and went for the balls. "Take back what you said!" Unfortunately, B.B. was able to grab her by the arm and swing her around, landing her further from where she started.

"Ooooh, it stretched… a rubber body, huh? I've never seen that before." Then he planted his foot on her head, keeping her from moving around, and examined her. "What'd we do to piss you off?"

"Dammit," Luffy cursed, moving her limbs back and forth, "Admit that I was right! You're a coward and a liar!" She futilely attempted to Gum-Gum Pistol his weak spot, but B.B. easily moved out of the way, realizing Luffy's target. A vein in his forehead pulsed, and he was about to draw his sword when someone yelled, "Let her go!"

Everyone turned to see the Mayor, with Makino standing behind him. She actually got him…? What did Makino think a weak old man like him could do?

The Mayor kowtowed, and she gaped at him. What the hell was he doing? "I don't know what Luffy did, but I don't want violence! Please, let her go! I'll pay you as much as you want!"

B.B. smirked. "Looks like someone around here knows how the world works. However…" The _shling_ of metal on scabbard sent chills throughout her body. No one could save her from a stab through the heart. "This girl pissed me off, and I can't be satisfied with just selling her now. Consider this a lesson learned, girlie: you never go for a man's privates when he can swat you like a fly." Her hands curled into fists, and she gritted her teeth from frustration. Was she really so weak? Did she really have to be saved…? Could she ever become Monkey D. Luffy with this amount of power?

"I was wondering why there was no one at the port." Her head sprung up. It was _Shanks_! He really did come! …She really did have to be saved by him. But she still felt incredible relief knowing that she wouldn't get skewered that day.

"What's wrong, Luffy?" Shanks smiled, unconcerned. "Isn't your punch as strong as a pistol?"

Really? He still had to make jokes even when her life was in danger? "Dammit, Apple-Head, this is no time for jokes!"

"I suggest you leave," one of the Bastard Bandits told Shanks. "If you get any closer, there's a chance your brains are going to get blown out." Undaunted, the red head continued to walk closer to us, and one of the cronies stepped up to hold a pistol to his head. "You deaf? You're not supposed to get any closer!"

Shanks smirked. "You gotta risk your life." What the- was he really trying to be cool and dramatic at a time like this? The crony holding the gun made a questioning noise, and the pirate captain continued. "Now that you've drawn your pistol, you have to risk your life for it."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Dammit Apple-Head, this isn't the time–"

"I'm saying that guns aren't for threatening people," Shanks continued, completely bulldozing over her comment. _He really wanted this dramatic moment, didn't he?_

"I'm _trying_ to tell you, Apple-Head, that–" _BAM!_

Luffy froze. The gunshot echoed throughout the village, and blood flew in her direction. She could see the moment the bullet had ripped through his skull, like a poke in a sheet of paper. Pieces of brain flew into the air, landing a meter or two away from her. Her body numbed and started to shake in pure, terrified shock. Her eyes widened to extreme sizes. A man had just died in front of her eyes. Red liquid pooled around the body of the bandit as his body hit the ground. His eyes were wide from the pain, his mouth open in surprise. The light in his eyes were gone. Red paint dripped down the holes in his head. If she looked closely, Luffy would be able to see the insides of his brain– she started to gag.

Lucky Roo had just killed someone, without any hesitation. She didn't have a problem with him, but… _it was over so quickly. And there was so much… blood._ Someone had just died. The sounds of the Bastard Bandits around her turned into white noise. Someone had just died. _Why was everyone acting so calmly? Why wasn't anyone screaming? Why weren't they mourning for their comrade? Shouldn't they be crying? Collapsing from grief? Trying to avenge their friend?_

 ** _…What was wrong with these people?_**

"You can pour sake on me, you can throw food on me, you can even spit on me, and I can just laugh it off, but…" Shanks's voice cut through Luffy's haze of shock, and her attention refocused. He was one of the Bastard Bandits anyways… it was just one less bastard in the world… right? …Right?

"No matter what the reason, no matter what happened, no matter who you are," Shanks face turned downright evil – that was the first time Luffy had ever seen his face so terrifying – " **ANYONE WHO HURTS MY FRIENDS HAS TO PAY!** "

Luffy didn't notice the tears starting to drip out of her eyes until she felt her cheeks get wet, and she quickly wiped her eyes dry. _Was_ _it from his words? Or was it from shock?_

She hadn't realized until now, but her friendship with Shanks and his crew nearly meant the world to her. Even if he had killed someone to do it, he was saving her because he cared. She had always thought that Shanks regarded her as a childish admirer; he had always made fun of her and called her names and put her down. His crew always took his side when he told her she couldn't be a pirate. Was that what friends could be like? Not always nice, but also teasing? Not always polite, but also rude? (Close, but also worlds apart?)

The Bastard Bandits charged towards the Red Hairs, and Luffy struggled again. Dammit, she couldn't stay still after _that_ outburst! However, it only took one Benn Beckman and the handle of a shotgun to take all of them out, making the Bandit Bastard the only one of his gang left standing.

Losing his cool, B.B. attempted to reason with the pirates. "H-Hey, wait a minute… this little brat messed with us first!"

"Aren't you a wanted man?" Shanks countered smoothly.

Then out of nowhere, B.B. – in full panic mode – pulled out a smoke bomb. "Damn it!" Luffy started to cough from the black powder, her eyes shut tight to prevent irritation, when a hand grabbed the back of her shirt.

"Hey! Lemme go!" she flailed her limbs through the air. Damn his height! "Let me go, B.B!"

 _"WHO ARE THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING B.B?!"_

* * *

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Bandit Bastard laughed crazily. "They'd never expect a mountain bandit to escape to sea!"

After kidnapping Luffy, B.B. had, in a random burst of energy, dashed towards the docks, stole a dingy, and then proceeded to sail into the ocean, thinking that the Red Hairs would never think to look there. Proud of his stupid plan, the guy had started laughing to himself, calling himself a genius. _Freaking psychopath…_

Luffy must've said that last part out loud, because then B.B. turned to her with an enraged face. "I only brought you as a hostage, but now you can go to hell! I don't need you anymore!"

Luffy immediately backed up, trying to get around his range, but only ended up hitting the side of the boat. Rushing forward again, she wrapped her arms around the leg that was headed towards her and bit the appendage, then let go at once. His leg tasted _disgusting_! When was the last time he bathed?!

B.B. must've reached his breaking point, because instead of swinging his leg around like she hoped he would, he grabbed her face with a grip as strong as iron and then threw her out to sea.

As she flew through the air, Luffy couldn't help but think of how useless she had been that day. Was Shanks right? Did she really have no chance of becoming a pirate? But Luffy-kun became a pirate, so couldn't she too? Was it because of her gender? Or was she just not strong enough, like she'd feared? Would she ever become strong enough?

Her body hit the water with a loud splash, and her body suddenly seemed to weigh tons. She felt incredibly tired, as if she had just run a marathon, but still struggled to keep her ahead afloat when the water behind B.B. rose. She paused for a slight second in surprise before thrashing her arms around to keep her head above water again. A huge sea king came out of the ocean and chomped on B.B.'s boat – the last thing she heard from him was a horrifying, girly scream as he was consumed.

Terror went through her body for the second time that day, but instead of staying still, Luffy frantically did her best to swim _away_ from the beast. As the sea king drew closer and closer, her limbs moved faster and faster. She didn't want to be this thing's dessert!

Suddenly strong arms engulfed her as the monster barely missed its intended target. Water soaked her skin, penetrating her natural body warmth, except for a small burst of warm liquid that brushed past her arm. She looked up and saw her stupid Apple-Head, who glared at the sea king. With a "Get lost" the beast squealed in fright and dived back into the ocean.

She held onto Shanks since her life depended on it, and she was able to see the whole picture. She started shaking and tears sprung to her eyes. Her body was as cold as ice, though it wasn't because of the water anymore. When it really mattered, she couldn't change anything after all, could she? What was the point of being here if she couldn't fix the bad parts? Because she really was weak, wasn't she? Useless? A liability? A _kid_? Her vision blurred, and dimly, she noticed Shanks swimming back towards the shore.

"Thanks, Luffy," Shanks started. "Makino told me what happened. You really do care about this Apple-Head, huh?" Snot was dripping out of her nose now, and it was getting hard to breathe from all of the mucus. "C'mon, a lady shouldn't cry like that."

"S-Shanks," she cried. "Y-You idiot…! You didn't have to…! **_Your a-arm!_** " His arm was warm; it encased her body like a blanket, and she tried not to think of the other one that _wouldn't be there anymore, because she dragged him down_.

"Hey, an arm's nothing compared to you," he smiled, and Luffy let herself sob at her own weakness and at his sacrifice.

* * *

"…Shanks?"

"Hm? What're you doing up, Luffy?"

It had been a few weeks since Shanks had lost his left arm, and Luffy couldn't help but feel a little responsible. Shanks was still in a "recovery" period, and he was in the process of getting used to having more weight on one side of his body. She felt closer than ever to Shanks ever since the B.B. Event, and she found herself seeking his company more and more. Sometime during those few weeks, she had taken off her bandage and discovered her trademark "Luffy" scar. The red head had joked that now they both had gotten "battle scars," and that she should feel proud of herself.

Right now, it was a quiet evening on board the Red Hair's vessel, and Luffy had sneaked out of the Party Bar with only her pajamas and a blanket for protection against the cold. Benn had spotted her on her way up that gangplank, noticed her attire and her ragged look, and then had pointed her towards Shanks's room. Some things were best solved by the captain, after all.

"…I had a nightmare." Luffy couldn't look him in the eyes – not because of his arm, for she had gotten over it a few days ago – but because it was such a _stupid_ nightmare about such a _stupid_ thing that she shouldn't even be thinking about, but she couldn't help it–

Shanks bonked her on the head, as if reading her thoughts. "Hey, whatever it is, you can tell me, ya know?" Well, at least he could tell that it was serious this time.

She frowned, and blushed with embarrassment. "It was about that– you know, when… when, you know, that guy, one of B.B.'s cronies, on that day, when Roo… you know, did the thing, and the thing happened, and then the guy fell and _hewouldn'tgetupanymore_ –"

"Okay, okay," Shanks stopped her. "How about trying being a little more clear, k? Then maybe I can help."

"Well, I'm…" Luffy took a deep breath. " _I'mstillhavingnightmaresaboutwhenRookilledthatbandit!_ "

The captain blinked. "What?" So he could understand slob-speech, but not fast-speech?

Luffy flushed, took another breath, and repeated, "I-I'm… I'm still having nightmares… about when Roo killed that bandit…"

Shanks's face broke out into a smile, relief present on his face. "Oh, is that all?"

Her temper flared again. "What do you mean ' _Is that all_ '–?!"

He slapped his hand around her mouth. "I meant that I'm glad you're not guilty about my arm anymore." Her face deflated. Did that mean that he didn't care that his actions have basically traumatized her?

"…But I'm sorry." It was Luffy's turn to blink. What?

"I didn't mean to scare you," the red head patted her head. "We just wanted to save you, but we ended up horrifying you. We didn't want to do that."

"…Shanks?"

"Yeah?"

"Is killing someone… really that okay?"

"Well… let me think about that," Shanks reclined on his bed. "Is it wrong to protect people you care about?"

"No, of course not," Luffy replied.

"Then is it wrong to kill someone to do it?"

She hesitated. "I… don't know. Is it?"

Shanks smiled enigmatically. "That's up to you."

"…What do you mean?"

"Are you someone who would lash out at a small cut? Would you wait until it was too late? Would you count on your friends to handle themselves? Or would you rather not have anyone at all?" He turned back to her. "It depends on you, because in the end all that matters is being yourself. You wouldn't be you if you forced yourself to be someone else." She stared at him in amazement. Who knew her Apple-Head could be so philosophical? It made her doubt her willingness to be Monkey D. Luffy, but if she _became_ Monkey D. Luffy, it wouldn't be a problem, right? Because if she was Monkey D. Luffy, and she acted like herself, then she would be acting like Luffy-kun, and it wouldn't make a difference, right?

She shook those thoughts out of her head. Right now, she didn't want to think about canon. "Hey, Shanks?"

"Yes?"

"Can I stay the night?"

He smirked. "Too scared to sleep alone?"

"No! It's just… you know, the walk back to Makino's is too far, and I'm cold."

He opened up his arm, and she crawled into the bed. "Well, I wouldn't mind having a teddy bear for the night."

"Shut up, Apple-Head!" However, she just cuddled further into his side, hiding her smile. A few seconds later, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

"You're really going now?"

It had been about a month or so since the B.B. incident, and after Shanks had fully recovered and went on a few more "test" trips to make sure he wouldn't die on a voyage, the Red Hair Pirates were now prepared to head north to a new base, before they got caught by marines.

"Yep," the main man himself, Shanks, told Luffy. "We've stayed here long enough. It's about time we move on. You gonna miss me?"

"Of course I am!" she told him. "But I'm not gonna ask to go with you anymore. I can become a pirate without you!"

"I wouldn't have taken you even if you stabbed your other eye," Shanks said, sticking out his tongue. "You don't have what it takes to be a pirate!"

"Yeah I do!" Luffy yelled. "Because one day, I'm going to gather up a crew as strong as yours – no, even stronger! And together, we'll find the One Piece, and I'll… I'll…" She took a deep breath; this was the moment – this would cement her place in the world. " _I'LL BECOME THE KING OF THE PIRATES!_ "

A beat passed; Luffy's eyes were closed in anticipation. She could barely stop herself from crying. What would Shanks say? Something about how a girl couldn't become king? Or how weak she was? How she'd just fall overboard and drown before she even reached the next island?

"…So you want to be better than us, huh?" Luffy jumped. What was he going to say? "Well, in that case…"

Something landed on her face. She peered her eyes open, and all she could see was straw. She gaped.

"I'm giving this hat to you," she could hear Apple-Head saying. "It's precious to me, so take good care of it." Dammit, she wasn't crying! Water had just started pouring out of her eyes out of nowhere!

Shanks walked away, back towards his ship. "Bring it back to me someday, when you've become a great pirate!"

She felt gratitude. She felt undeserving. She felt mournful. She felt regret. But most of all, she felt proud, because her precious friend had entrusted her with his treasure, and now it would be hers. She would treasure it, because this was the first time anyone had had so much faith in her.

" _YOU BETTER NOT FORGET ME, APPLE-HEAD!_ " she called, and in the distance she could see his lone arm waving back at her. She stayed in that spot for hours after the ship disappeared, even when Makino told her to go back inside.

Hopefully, one day she could be the Monkey D. Luffy he deserved – the Luffy that everyone needed. The Luffy that was supposed to be there, instead of her.

* * *

 **Longer chapter, so there's more to go over. And yes, I did change the cover picture already, because I wanted something more creative and insightful, and a Luffy that was less... booby (I plan on having a less "booby" Luffy in the future).**

 **"A what? Magic?":** **I wanted to show Luffy's lack of knowledge for the language, so I tried to use a word that sounded similar to "masochist." Unfortunately, I am not Japanese and do not know someone who knows it, so I used Google Translate. The word sounded like "Mazo" and the first word that popped into my head was "Ma** **ho" (Magic) so I used that (fail, Kana-chan, FAIL).**

 **Apple-Head:** **For those of you who like to say words in their head its Japanese form while reading fan fiction (like me, YAY), I like to pronounce this as "Ringo-Tama." (Head is usually "atama," but I shorten it since it's a nickname).**

 **The Question:** **In canon, Luffy-kun asks Shanks how long his crew is planning to stay at Foosha village (how long they were going to use it as a base). Here, Luffy asks it nearly every time they come back from a trip not only because she'd miss them, but also because she's waiting for the cue that things are "about to go down" soon.**

 **Ji-chan:** **-chan is a suffix that is used similarly to -kun, however is associated more towards girls and cute things (also for grandparents). "Ji" is a short form of "Ojī" which refers to a grandfather. "Ji-chan" refers to Luffy's granddad, Monkey D. Garp, and in the anime it is usually translated as "Gramps."**

 **Makino-san:** **-san is usually used for politeness, and usually means "Mr." "Mrs." "Ms." etc., however I find that when using one of those three as a translation it sounds too formal, so I just think of it as a polite term.**

 **Belly:** **The currency in One Piece; according to the wiki, "belly" is the correct spelling in English while "beri/beli" is the romanized name (and since I'm mainly using English...)**

 **Kowtow:** **To kneel and touch the ground with one's forehead. It's a huge form of respect/submission, basically the near-complete opposite of a "F***k you, give me your money!" The mayor is using it to appear submissive and appeal to Bandit Bastard.**

 **Bandit Bastard/B.B./Bastard Bandits:** **Not a Japanese term, but I wanted to clear it up. "Bandit Bastard" and "B.B." refer to Higuma, the bandit leader (the one that dies), while "Bastard Bandits" refer to his henchmen.**

 **...I think Luffy is a bit too obsessed with becoming Luffy-kun o_O**

 **So in the last chapter, Luffy was very shy and kinda blurted things out a lot. I guess you can say that she was more "OOC" in that chapter than in this one, mainly because at the time Shanks was still a stranger to her and she was more scared wondering if she would actually have to go through canon. In this one she is shown to be quick to anger (because of Shanks's teasing) and gets a little sarcastic with it, though she doesn't usually say it out loud (unlike Luffy-kun, who usually says what's on his mind). Also (I doubt anyone noticed, but I still want to make it clear) the way Luffy thinks and the way she talks is very different. Since this fic is mostly going to be in Luffy's third person POV (kinda weird, but I like it this way), all of the narration comes from Luffy. So most of the comments, descriptions, etc. come from her. Whenever she speaks, she uses simpler language, but in her narration, she uses more complex language. You could assume that she's narrating in English, though the way I like to see it is her thinking in Japanese and inserting English words for words she doesn't know. Just something I wanted to point out and also because she only curses when narrating, not speaking (I don't count dammit/damn it/hell).**

 **I decided to give Shanks a nickname, "Apple-Head" because of Luffy's apple comment in the previous chapter (though I wasn't really thinking of it when I made it) and it adds more flavor to her temper. (It also adds more humor)**

 **In canon, Shanks uses excuses such as "You're a man" towards canon!Luffy, but this Luffy is obviously not a man, so I changed it to lady. I do find that most fem!Luffy fics depict Luffy as a complete/mostly a tomboy, who would never want to do anything "girly." This Luffy is still a tomboy, she just doesn't mind being referred to as girly/ladylike. I feel like that would be more realistic if Luffy was born a girl (though I do like to see her floundering around in other fics to get away from the dresses).**

 **I feel like Benn would have more insight onto someone else's personality and feelings, so he became a counselor (haha). And yes, his name is spelled with two n's; I checked. And don't worry, I know that five feet is not equal to a meter.**

 **Unlike in canon, this Luffy gets angry at Shanks because he allowed someone weaker than him to ridicule him. In canon (in my opinion), Luffy-kun is more disappointed in Shanks as a role model because of his stereotype of pirates. To him, pirates are supposed to be manly, strong, brave, and able to fight. However, this Luffy already knows that not all pirates are the same (previous knowledge, hello) but she's angry that her friend was humiliated by some coward that carries around his wanted poster to scare people.**

 **I believe that the reason why Luffy-kun was "weak" in canon (compared to his brothers and strong adults, at least) was because of his change in mass. Rubber has a different mass, so his balance would be ruined by the change.**

 **I was really confused as to why Luffy-kun wasn't traumatized by the _murder_ of a person right in front of him in canon, so I changed that. So in the future, there might be mentions of Luffy's trauma since that event has made her scared of gory injuries/deaths (realistic-ness for the win!)**

 **Next chapter: Luffy's grandpa comes back to discover that Luffy's desire to become a pirate has grown even more, so he decides that leaving her at a bandit base would help solve that problem.**

 **Things I'd Like to Know: Was my dialogue unsatisfactory? Do you feel like my depiction of canon events was too unoriginal? Did I make Shanks too OOC? What did you think of the fluff I added in (Luffy going to Shanks because of nightmares)? Do you dislike the way I write Luffy's POV? Does my writing seem to flow awkwardly (transitions between subjects - not the lines)? Were my attempts at humor successful? Also, make sure to tell me if I made any grammar/spelling errors.**

 **And now, I should really start working on my essay...**

 **Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!**

 **\- Kana-chan**


	4. Chapter 3

**It's the weekend, so I was able to work on this more, even though I have two projects I need to work on. Damn you plot bunnies!**

 **Obvious disclaimer is obvious.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

A few weeks later, the Devil arrived in the form of Luffy's grandfather, spouting crap about marines and the navy. When he discovered her devil fruit ability and the Pirate King's hat on her head, he decided that enough was enough and dragged her off to the mountains while Makino watched fearfully. She would've liked to say that it was a day of great misfortune and terror for all, but it only applied to her. Sadly.

And so she was dragged off to the home of mountain bandits in the middle of nowhere, where if she died and they could blame it on wild bears. Lovely.

While her gramps was busy announcing his dumping-of-granddaughter onto the bandits, Ace came out of nowhere and spat in her face. She was about to yell at him angrily when she remembered why he was so foul, so she forgave him, since he was going to be her big brother. Someday. Hopefully soon. The manga made it seem hopelessly long, though. Well, she wouldn't know until she tried, right? Everyone had their bad days! Maybe he stubbed his toe on a tree on the way back from… wherever, and got into a bad mood.

Of course, Dadan didn't get special privileges. When she called her a brat, Luffy _had_ to call her a fat old man, even though she was fairly sure that the lumps of meat on her chest were boobs. Or maybe they were man boobs, since they didn't have a very solid shape, but who cared at this point? She was not surprised when she only received a bowl of rice for dinner that night.

"You only get a bowl of rice and a cup of water every day," Dadan told her. "Anything else you want, you have to get yourself!" She readily agreed, having already suffered a weekend in the jungle, which seemed to surprise the large woman. It didn't stop her from trying to stea– _borrow_ some of their meat, though; it looked freaking delicious!

The next morning, she spotted Ace heading out somewhere (cough Sabo cough) and started to follow him. The bandits had ordered her to help around the house, but there was no way in hell she was doing chores – not only because she had no idea had to do them, but she'd probably get distracted by a passing butterfly and drop a pot onto Dogra's foot. Oops.

"Hey Ace!" she called out to him. She was chasing him through the forest, and he stopped when he heard her. "My name's Luffy! I forgive you for spitting on me; we all have bad days, right? So let's be friends! What should we do today? …Hey, what are you doing?"

Suspiciously, Ace went up to a nearby tree, and then kicked it with so much force that it fell and started rolling towards her. Her eyes bugged out.

"HOLY HELL, THAT'S A TREE!" If she was someone else, she would've thought, _Yeah, no duh, dipshit_. And then she was crushed.

Thankfully, she was made of rubber, so after a lot of struggle and stretching (she still had to get used to that) she freed herself and made her way towards the direction Ace was headed. She had no idea if she was going the right way, but somehow got lucky and ended up on a bridge. Ace, ahead of her, paused and turned back with slight shock on his face (she did get crushed by a tree, after all).

She smiled and waved. "Hey! You must be in a really bad mood today, huh? I know, let's go get some ice cream down at the–" And then she was knocked off the bridge by a pipe to the face. Into a valley, where she couldn't see the bottom.

Luffy ignored how sinister Ace's face was, and attempted to Gum Gum Rocket her way back to the bridge. Distantly, she could see the great surprise on his face, which was new. Unfortunately, she was not able to calculate the amount of force she needed to stretch a certain amount of distance back to safety. And so, she fell to bottom (and bounced a couple of times, the first bounce at least ten meters high – hey, new record).

There, she was able to live a new way of life – for a week. She did think (hope) that all of these experiences would be helpful one day, such as the time she flew for about half an hour, the time she spent a weekend in the jungle, and that one time her grandpa threw her into a bottomless ravine. Now that she thought about it, that ravine was incredibly similar to this valley, except this one had wolves instead of empty space. Speaking of wolves, she should probably start running right about–

" **AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!** "

* * *

When she returned to the bandit base a week later, after being nearly mauled to death by wolves, she was half-expected an "Oh my god where have you been?" or a "What happened? Are you okay?" However, the other half was not surprised when Dadan just screamed "What the fuck?! You're still alive?!"

Ignoring the rest of the questions, Luffy dragged herself to a random room and collapsed with a sigh. Chasing after Ace proved to be more difficult than she was expecting, but it was only the first try. She'd get him next time. Hopefully.

* * *

A couple days had passed, but Luffy hadn't made much progress. However, the way things were going…

"Hey Ace! Let's be friends– _WAGHHHH I THOUGHT THOSE WERE LOGS_!" Luffy screamed as several crocodiles jumped up to eat her.

…they weren't really looking good.

* * *

She made it a little further that day, which gave her some hope. At this rate, she and Ace would be friends in no time!

"Ace! Let's get some ice cre– FALLING ROCKS?!"

She just needed to adapt, that's all. It was a good training exercise, at least? Distracted by her own thoughts, Luffy shrugged to herself and got crushed.

(Ace looked back at her and thought that she must be mentally retarded.)

* * *

This time Ace left without eating. Luffy assumed he was going to eat later or with Sabo, but she worried that he'd get tired while making the trip and slip up.

"Yo Ace! How about we go get breakfast or so– WHERE DID THOSE SNAKES COME FROM?!"

She understood why he was trying to shake her off, but did he always have to watch as she fell into his traps?

* * *

Luffy frowned at herself in the window. It was night out, so she was able to see her own reflection and examined herself closely.

Why didn't Ace like her? Well, she knew that he didn't exactly like other people, but come on; she was a kid (physically)! Wasn't she adorable? Didn't he just want to cuddle her? Her gramps certainly loved a good cuddle from his little girl, but maybe it was because he was so old he didn't get a chance to see cute things as much?

She tilted her head. Was it her face? She let it go slack, and personally thought it was a little bland. Well, Luffy had never really put that much effort into looking sweet. But she thought that since she appeared to be a little girl, maybe she'd appeal to him more if she looked cuter. But how would she go about it?

An idea popped into her head. Back when she was about five or six years old, she had seen a child about her age use puppy-dog eyes against her father, and she was instantly showered with hugs, kisses, and most importantly, _food_. But, ahem, maybe it'd work for persuading Ace to be friends with her? Now, how did that girl do it again?

Pouting – dammit, she needed to pout for it in order to work. Looking around her to make sure no one was watching, Luffy pushed her lower lip out in a sad frown, and looked at herself again. No, that didn't seem right.

Ah right, the rest of her face needed to look sad, too. So she pushed the sides of her eyebrows down to look more miserable – but there was something else missing. Although she looked sad, she didn't look _adorably_ sad.

Racking her brain, she finally came up with the answer a couple of minutes later. Her _eyes_ had to look watery and shiny and big and… stuff. Probably sparkly too. So she widened her eyes as far as she could, threw some dust into them so that tears would form, found some flashlights and hanged them next to her eyes, and voila! …Well, maybe not exactly. She'd have to work on the sparkly bit.

(Around the corner, Luffy was completely unaware of Magra's "Awwwwww!"s and Dogra's "Shhhhhh!"s.)

…Of course, when Luffy tried it on Ace the next day, his only response was to knock her lights out (literally), jab her in the face into a pit of scorpions, and walk away.

As she screamed in terror and desperately tried to Rocket her way back up the pit, Luffy made note to practice those eyes later.

(By now, Ace was definitely sure that there was something wrong with her head.)

* * *

Today Luffy faced giant birds. As long as they stayed perched in the trees where they belonged, she wouldn't have a problem with them.

That is, until they started pulling on Hat. That was when war started.

At least they tasted delicious. Too bad the meat distracted her long enough for her to lose track of Ace, so she tried to lure him with the smell of meat.

"Ace! I got a bunch of meat here ready for you! Wanna be–" Then a tiger came out of nowhere, and she had to flee for her life before she got eaten. She attempted to bring as much meat as she could with her, but ended up having to drop all of it when a bear walked into her path and tried to take her along with the meat. It was a pity, but when the animal nearly bit her face off she decided that she should just book it already.

* * *

It was raining that day. Luffy looked at it somewhat fondly, as this had been the first time she had seen it since Shanks left. It made her feel melancholic, and it was on days like this take she truly took time to think about her past and all of her decisions so far.

Then a flash of red crossed her vision, and she was barely able to see Ace running back into the forest with only his tank, shorts, and a pipe.

Stea– Grabbing an umbrella from inside the house (ignoring Dogra's cries of "Hey! That's mine!") she ran out only wearing her shirt and shorts.

When she finally caught up to him, she yelled, "Hey Ace! You forgot to bring an umbrella!" She waved the blue umbrella around, when the damn tiger and bear came out of nowhere, and she nearly peed her pants before realizing she could run and fled.

After realizing that Ace got away due to her cowardliness, she resolved to not be afraid of anything again. (Which failed miserably, but she tried, okay?)

* * *

The day of salvation came; she had finally reached the end of the forest! If she knew how to say it in Japanese, she would've fallen to her knees and screamed, "PRAISE THE LORD HALLELUJAH!" Before she could scream anything, however, her nose instantly cringed at the smell of a thousand different things, most of which were rotten, rusty, or just plain dirty. Looking below her, she got a full view of Gray Terminal, a "city" of trash, the future resting place for burned innocents.

In the distance, she spotted Ace headed from the terminal into the woods, and rushed to keep him in sight. She stumbled several times due to the effort she had exerted in order to get that far, but continued a kilometer or so into the woods.

"…we need to buy a pirate ship." Luffy's ears perked. That didn't sound like Ace, so it must've been Sabo!

"Dunno, but we still got a ways to go," she heard Ace say. She looked up from the foot of the tree she was standing next to, and could see them conversing and something sparkly. "Close it already; you don't know who could spot us."

It was probably about now that she had to cut it. "You guys wanna be pirates?!" she called excitedly. She couldn't wait for them to be siblings, because then she wouldn't be all alone! But she felt like she was forgetting something… "I do too! I didn't know that you came this far every day, Ace!" Overhead, she heard whispers as the two discussed something furiously, and she couldn't help but grin and rock back and forth on her heels.

The two boys gave each other one last serious look, then bounded down, grabbed her forcefully by the arms, and tied her to the tree trunk. She was really confused by that, but she was too focused on the fact that now she had older brothers! Well, they weren't really her brothers yet, but same thing! But if she wanted to be friends with Sabo, she couldn't mysteriously know his name out of nowhere, so she had to introduce herself.

"My name's Luffy!" she told him. "Are you Ace's friend? Let's be friends too!" He ignored her, but she was too happy daydreaming about her future with them to notice that they were planning her death, until…

"Let's kill her," Ace decided.

"Agreed," Sabo replied.

She froze. The first thing that popped into her head was _the bang of a gun, the splatter of blood, so much, therewastoomuchblood_ –

She couldn't help the tears that surfaced, and she whimpered, "N-No…" The duo paused at her waterworks – until she started screaming. "I DON'T WANNA DIE! HELPPPPPP! DON'T KILL ME!"

"Shut up!" Ace yelled. "Sabo, hurry up and do it!"

"What are you saying?! _You_ do it!"

"I've never killed anyone before!"

"Neither have I! How am I supposed to do it?!"

Luffy stopped screaming once she realized that they wouldn't actually kill her. "Are you two panicking?"

"SHUT UP ALREADY!"

"I hear voices from over there!" someone called in the distance.

"Crap, we gotta go!" Sabo whispered.

"Untie the girl first; then we run!"

Once her binds were gone, they dashed away. Luffy looked around the area, confused. Where had they gone? What were they so scared of that they had to run and hide?

When she thought she heard them, she walked in the direction of the noise until she bumped into one of the tallest, biggest men she had ever seen in her life…

"Wow! You're huge!" Her eyes might have been sparkling – well at least she figured out that part – since he looked kinda cool, like some kind of punk rocker. "You have cool hair!" She felt like she shouldn't be complimenting him, but she couldn't help it! It was so spiky and long, like a horse mane or something!

Raising one nonexistent eyebrow, the big purple-haired man picked her up around the waist using his gigantic hand and gave her a stern look. "Tell me, kid, have you seen some brats called Ace and Sabo?" His voice was threatening, and it didn't exactly sound like this guy and Ace and Sabo were friends…

Luffy realized that this person was a bad guy, started sweating, and avoided eye contact. Faking innocence, she answered calmly, "Who? Never heard of 'em."

Purple-mane man narrowed his eyes. Dammit, he was onto her! "Well, looks like we'll have to _remind_ you then." And then he started walking away with her in his hand. She immediately started struggling. Curse grown-ups in One Piece and their unnatural size!

"Let go of me, purple-mane guy!"

" _WHERE DID THAT NAME COME FROM?!_ "

* * *

Luffy glared at her captors. "I already told you, I don't know those two! Now untie me!" How many times was she going to get tied up today? It was getting really annoying!

Out of nowhere, purple-mane guy pulled out a wooden mallet probably ten times her size and she gaped. Where did that come from?! And then with a battle cry, purple-mane guy tugged it downwards, onto her. He let it rest on her for a few seconds before her rubber body caused it the mallet jump to upwards again, leaving no physical effect on her. Several of the men (pussies) screamed at the sight.

"…Looks like she's eaten a devil fruit. Get my gloves," purple-mane guy ordered. He pointed at one of his subordinates, and someone pulled up her rope so that she was hanging from the ceiling. "Listen closely, you little shit; your friend Ace stole important money for our crew. I know you know who they are, and where the cash is. So–" Pain blossomed in her gut, and she could feel spikes barely ripping into her body and tearing her body open. "–tell us already!"

Luffy breathed heavily, and she tried to keep her fearful eyes to herself. She could see the puddle of blood – _her blood, too much blood_ – in her peripheral vision, but she didn't want to look. It'd bring up bad memories, and she didn't want to get Ace and Sabo in trouble. Her life liquid dripped down her stomach and some of it had splashed onto her face. Her shirt, a favorite from Makino, was now ruined; the white cloth was stained red.

"You shouldn't make pirates mad," purple-mane guy told her. "Especially our captain, Bluejam – he's even worse than me."

She gritted her teeth when tears unconsciously started to fall from the pain. Her fists clenched. She couldn't give up so easily and she couldn't give in, no matter how much it hurt and even though she had no idea what was going on, because the information she had was her soon-to-be- _brothers'_ treasure. When those two had threatened to kill her, somewhere inside she knew they weren't going to hurt her. Even though Luffy had been scared at the thought of two people who she trusted and believed in before she even met them turn on her, she didn't want them to hate her. She didn't want to them to leave her all by herself.

She smirked rebelliously. "Y-You can go and… shove a sausage… up your butt…" That was as close as she could get to a "Fuck you," she supposed. And then the torture began.

* * *

He knew she was retarded. He knew there was something wrong with her, but he'd never expected her to be _this_ dumb! She must've gotten it from her idiot grandfather!

Ace had despised the little, seven-year old girl that came along with ji-ji the moment he laid his eyes on her. She was just another one of _them_ , someone that wasn't him. Someone who already hated him, even though she didn't know who he was. If she ever knew, she would – but he'd make sure she never knew. She would just be another casualty.

He didn't know why she started following him that day, asking to be friends. Oh right, because she didn't know, but sooner or later she would and _she'dhatehimlikealltheothers_ –

So he tried to get rid of her. When his first attempt didn't work, he was slightly surprised that she had survived, but he didn't really care how she managed that. Annoyed at her survival, he knocked her off the bridge, and then she _stretched_. He had openly gaped at that, but then quickly closed his mouth and prepared to keep her from getting back up. But then her arm fell short of the bridge, and she dropped to the bottom with a ear-piercing scream. God, her voice was aggravating.

That night he had brushed off the bandits' questions, and went to bed with the comfort of knowing that there would be one less person in the world out there against him.

He was irritated when she came back alive the next week. Was she immortal or something? Then the next morning she just chased after him again like she hadn't nearly died because of him! He was determined to see her fail, to see her finally give up on him because _he wasn't worth it_ , but the process continued for three months.

The first time he thought she was truly stupid was when she didn't move after he sent an avalanche after her. Instead, she had stood there with a slightly pensive look on her face, shrugged to herself, and then was crushed.

The second time, Ace was absolutely sure she had some type of mental disorder. She had walked up to him with flashlights hanging next to her eyes and then proceeded to pout, throw dirt into her eyes, widen them to superhuman sizes, and turned on the flashlights. Naturally, he broke both flashlights, as they had been blinding him, then jabbed her in the face with the end of his pipe into a pit of scorpions.

The one that confused him the most was a rainy day. She had been chasing him, calling out to him and waving an umbrella around when a giant tiger and bear came out of nowhere, fighting. Instead of running away like he expected her to, she stood stock-still with fright. He had stopped, waiting for her to run. Why hadn't she been moving? Then she finally managed to gather her wits and run away, bringing the umbrella with her.

What had he been expecting? After all, she was just like all the others – she had just proved it herself. He wasn't worried about her, dammit.

Then one day, she had actually _appeared_ at his and Sabo's treasure hideout. He had been prepared to actually kill her when he realized that he had never killed someone before, and he was actually _afraid_ of taking a person's life – or was it because the girl had never been actively hostile towards him? Because so far, she hadn't done anything to hurt him yet? Because she was innocent for now?

Somehow the idiot allowed herself to get caught by the pirates he had stolen from, and he and Sabo had to rush to move their treasure before the doofus revealed their hideout. It was only a matter of time before she cracked, after all.

"Ace!" Sabo yelled. He sounded panicked – or was it worry? What for?

"What's wrong, Sabo? Have they gone after our loot yet?"

"No, and I don't think they ever will!" Ace made a questioning noise. "That kid … she still hasn't told them!"

They gave each other a look. If she had lasted this long, then it was highly unlikely she would ever give in. They couldn't let that girl sacrifice herself – she clearly was, for whatever reason – while they got away scot-free! Because it didn't feel right; he couldn't treat someone else like how everyone treated the mere thought of his existence.

They had to save her, because whether they liked it or not, they owed her. They had to save Luffy.

* * *

It was hard to focus; she had lost too much blood in the past couple of hours, and everything was blurry. She could barely hear what purple-mane guy was saying, which sounded like a distant voice spoken through a wall. There was blood all over her body – it painted her like the color of her skin, a second coating, and had even soaked her ropes all the way through. She dangled limply from the ceiling, and she didn't even have any strength left to cry out in pain. Her body had numbed long ago, her eyes were dull and dry, and right now the only things she was thinking of were "I hope the hat didn't get dirty" and "It hurts… so much… when will it be over?"

She didn't understand why she had to go through this. Would she die like this? Hanging from a rope, left to bleed to death? Would she ever be able to set sail? She couldn't leave her nakama behind…

A stabbing pain sparked on her face. "You fucking brat, you think that keeping a secret will make you grown-up?!"

"Y-You… can go… to h-hell," she gasped. "I-I won't say it… I w-won't say it…" _Just make it stop, make the pain stop already. She didn't want to look at the blood anymore, there's too much, toomuchblood **EVerYWheRe!** _ She imagined that if she focused for long enough, she'd be able to see some flesh and possibly some guts as we– _stopitshedidntwanttothinkaboutit!_

"Fine, this is getting pointless," she hear purple-mane guy say. "Die."

 _Would the pain finally stop now?_

" **STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!** " She heard the battle cries of… Ace and Sabo? They were here?

Luffy peered her eyes open, and couldn't help but start sobbing at the sight. "AAAAAAAce…! Saaboooooo…!" They came to save her! Why were they here? Didn't they hate her guts? _Bad reference, she really shouldn't think about guts right now_.

The sounds of a fight broke out, and she could dimly see the forms of her future siblings battling purple-mane guy two-on-one. A moment or two later, her binds were broken and she was caught by either Sabo or Ace.

"Let's run, Ace!" the person carrying her called out. Ah, so that was Sabo.

"You two go on ahead!" Ace replied.

"Wha- you idiot!"

"Once I've faced an enemy…" she could imagine his face growing serious, prepping himself for the battle. "...I never run!"

Sabo dropped Luffy, and she groaned. It was getting hard to stay conscious. She slowly pushed herself up so that she could see what was going on, and she was met with the sight of Sabo and Ace kicking purple-mane guy's ass.

"Wow…" Luffy breathed. They took him down in a split second…! Could she ever be as strong as that?

Her eyes started to close, and she fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

When Luffy woke up, she was heavily bandaged and her entire body burned from pain. Her hat was left lying next to her, and she sat up and quickly as she could and plopped it back on her head. She scanned her surroundings, noticing that now she was in the forest, and spotted Ace and Sabo talking a ways away from her.

Several minutes later, when she was finally able to craw– **walk** over to them, she sat down with a sigh of relief. It took _way_ too much effort just to walk a couple of meters. Then she started crying silently. That was even _worse_ than when Roo shot that bandit! How many times was Oda going to traumatize her?!

Her blond brother was currently scolding Ace. "Are you trying to die?! Saying 'I'm not gonna run' when you're facing a real pirate… and now Bluejam will never forgive us! He's going to target us!"

Ace ignored his friend and pointed at her angrily. "How long are you going to cry?! I hate weaklings that just cry all the time! You piss me off!"

Luffy hastily rubbed her face of any traces of tears, then remembered what they did for her. "Thank you very much," she bowed, "for saving me!" For some reason, Ace erupted with an angry "Damn you!" and Sabo had to placate him.

"Why didn't you tell them?!" he demanded. "They're criminals that would've easily killed you as if you were a pig for slaughter!"

She gave him a sad frown. "If I told them, you wouldn't have liked me, and then we couldn't be friends."

"But that'd be better than dying, right?! Why do you want to hang out with me so much!?" Sabo watched the conversation silently. "Do you have any idea the amount of shit you put me through, after you've finally followed me all the way here?!"

"I don't have anyone else…" she murmured.

"Hah?"

"I-I don't have… any other friends!" she cried. "Ji-chan won't let me go back to Foosha Village, and the mountain bandits don't like me, and Shanks left months ago… if I didn't go after you–" What would happen to him, without a Luffy to love? "–I'd be all by myself… and being alone hurts more than getting hurt!"

Ace paused. "What about your parents?"

"I don't have any."

Ace looked like he had a sudden epiphany, yet still didn't believe it. "…So if I'm with you, then it doesn't hurt… but if I wasn't there, it would?"

"Yeah."

"Y-You want me… to live?" Did he just stutter?

"'Course I do!" What could Monkey D. Luffy be without his brothers? How could she get through the next seven years without them? How could _he_ get through the next seven years without her?

Relaxing again, he told her, "Hmph… but I still hate spoiled brats like you."

Her temper flared easily, since it had been dormant for so long. "What are you talking about?! I'm not spoiled; my punch is as strong as a pistol!"

"Yeah right! You're just a weak little girl, and you're a crybaby on top of that!" Now he was crossing the line!

"What's wrong with being a girl?! I'd say that I did better than you would've! Plus, I'm only seven – when I'm your age, I'll be even better!"

"Don't compare me to you, dumbass!" A vein pulsed. He was almost as bad as Shanks, except Shanks always did it in that infuriating way of his that made it seem like he didn't care!

"I'll be stronger than you and Sabo and Shanks and everyone in the world, because I'm going to be the Pirate King!" She _better_ , because there was no way Luffy was never going to be King in canon! The only question was if she would be able to do it…

"You?! How could you ever become Pira–?"

"Hey, you two," Sabo interrupted calmly.

"WHAT?!" Luffy and Ace screamed. They were in the middle of an _argument_ here!

"I've lived here all my life, but now we're all going to be wanted by Bluejam's crew," he told them. "If I stay here, I'm going get killed all by myself."

The two looked at each other, a truce temporarily formed, and then grinned. "We have the perfect place for you…"

* * *

" **ACE! LUFFY! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!** "

Dadan was not happy when she discovered that the amount of children in her home had grown overnight, but Luffy didn't really care, because she was as tired as _hell_. But at least she had her brothers now. She could let her life grow into a pattern of training, food, sleep, and happiness for ten more years until canon.

Luffy visibly deflated. Sabo… he was going to die, wasn't he? She wanted to stop that, but did she have to ability to? When she wanted to prevent Shanks's arm from getting eaten, nothing changed. Would she be able to change Sabo's fate? …But she had to try, even if it seemed impossible!

Ace and Sabo ran out of the house, and Luffy shook out of her stupor. She stumbled after them, since her body was still sore, and called, "Heyyyy! Wait for me!"

"Luffy! We'll bring back some grub for you, so you don't have to come!"

"No way, don't leave me with the fat old man!"

" _WHO ARE YOU CALLING A FAT OLD MAN?!_ "

Everything had to get better and better. She didn't know what kind of state she'd be in if Sabo died… again.

* * *

 **Extra/Omake**

Ace wavered. He had to look away, but he couldn't pull his gaze from her face. Her _cute_ , _adorable–_ no! He couldn't give in, no matter how mesmerizing it was! How could he call himself a man if he allowed her to affect him like this?

But he still wondered how the hell Luffy was able to go from the flashlights to this… this monstrosity!

Luffy sat in front of Ace, looking up at him due to her short height (which did not help his situation at all!). Her lower lip was stuck out in a frown, her eyes were big and watery, and she _sparkled!_ She fucking _sparkled!_ And it wasn't any regular sparkle; it was the bunnies-and-flowers kind of sparkling! What was this witchcraft?! Where did it come from?!

Just a few months ago, she had to throw dust or dirt in her eyes to make them water, and she always brought out some random flashlights from nowhere to make them "shine." But now, at the worst times, she was able to do all of that without even breaking a sweat! All just for getting more meat for dinner, too!

Somehow he couldn't stop himself from wilting. Beside him, Sabo was determinedly looking away from their cute baby sister; otherwise he'd be sucked into her evil plan for extra food, too. He hesitated, about to turn his head away, when more tears formed in Luffy's eyes.

Holy shit, was she going to cry? He couldn't make her cry, the last time she cried his chest hurt, and it made him feel terrible! Ace started to panic, desperately looking for a way to cheer her up, and ended up shoving his entire plate of food towards her. "Here! Don't cry, please don't cry!"

Instantly, Luffy's mood did a complete 180. Her tears vanished, and her face lit up. "Thanks!" she grinned, and started to stuff her mouth with his dinner. He was about to scold her for being so manipulative, maybe even punch her upside the head, but then he realized that she was still sparkling. Dammit, he couldn't hurt Luffy while she was still– still like _that_!

He slammed his head on the table. "Goddammit…"

Sabo patted his back comfortingly. "A hundred times in a row, Ace."

" _THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!_ "

* * *

 **Ji-ji:** **A rude form of grandpa that Ace uses a lot in canon. In the anime, it is usually translated as "old man."**

 **Purple-mane man/guy : Like last chapter, Luffy uses this to refer to Porchemy, Bluejam's subordinate, since she doesn't remember his name.**

 **I felt like last chapter didn't have as much of the short attention span Luffy had in the first chapter, so I tried to add a little bit more of that in the beginning. Because when it starts getting into the more detailed sections, there's more focus on narration rather than Luffy's thoughts. I also tried to make it a little bit more funny in the beginning (see previous reasoning for excuse).**

 **In other fem!Luffy fics, Ace usually has some type of overprotective streak for Luffy, not only because she's his precious little sister, but also because to him she is freaking _adorable_. I got this idea a while back of Luffy trying to figure out how to be "cute," since I really doubt that if canon!Luffy was a girl she'd try to be cute before meeting Ace or at all (and since this is a self-insert, she doesn't automatically get awesome Luffy-cuteness).**

 **Poor Luffy, she forgot that she was going to get tortured in the near future, and she got even more traumatized in the process. I guess if she really should blame anyone, she should blame me, haha. I was also honestly confused by this part in canon, since if Porchemy had spikes sharp enough to hurt Luffy, wouldn't the spikes stab into his body and damage his insides? Yet at the end of it all he just ends up with a bunch of bandages and cries of "It hurts"? And I think Porchemy would look like a pretty cool guy if he wasn't a bad guy, but oh well. He's dead now, so I can't really regret it.**

 **!SPOILERS!**

 **For those of you currently caught up to the manga/anime, you should know that Sabo actually turns out alive. However, seeing how it's very recent, I decided that Luffy would only know events as far as the Fishman Island/Punk Hazard arc. I haven't decided how far her knowledge should go yet, but it definitely won't reach as far as Dressrosa. So Luffy thinks that Sabo is going to die** **– now it's just a matter of if she will be able to save Sabo. I already have something planned, but let's just say Luffy might get even more traumatized...**

 **!SPOILERS OVER!**

 **I attempted to do Ace's POV twice, but I'm not sure if was very good. Comments?**

 **And so Luffy exploits Ace's weakness for her cuteness. Good or bad attempt at fluff/humor?**

 **I actually feel pretty proud of this chapter, but still feel free to let me know anything that's bothering you. Good thing I had the common sense to make the Author's Note shorter this time.**

 **Thanks for reading, and have a nice day! :D**

 **\- Kana-chan**


	5. Chapter 4

**So I took longer with this chapter sadly not only because of school but also because I've added more original interactions since I'm planning to go into the Sabo Incident next chapter (if I did it this chapter, the pacing would be too fast). Fortunately, I have less than one week of school left before summer vacation and only have to worry about two finals. Plus, I already have a few ideas for how I should go about the Sabo Incident (any suggestions are welcome, of course). **

**Unfortunately, shortly after vacation begins my family and I are traveling for somewhere between two and three weeks, which means I won't be able to work on this as much during that time. I can't bring my laptop, which is the device I feel most comfortable writing on. Sorry about that.**

 **But back to the story! I've added some more original scenes this time...**

 **Obvious disclaimer is obvious.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

She could do it this time! Just make the trajectory a little higher and–

"Gomu gomu no– UWAHH!" She lost her balance, and her fist bounced on the ground and she ended up punching herself in the face. Well, at least she was strong enough to beat herself?

After the purple-mane guy fiasco, Luffy, Ace, and Sabo had settled into a comfortable routine of ditching chores, training, stealing, hunting, and sleeping. Lately they had set up a training exercise in which they would each battle each other 50 times in order to get stronger and improve their skills, which was ingenious if not for the one disadvantage she had; Luffy, still somewhat unused to her own body, had not won a single match against either of her friends.

"Geez, is that body of yours good for anything?" Ace said. That had been her last match of the day, and she had failed completely again. She had already told the two about her devil fruit ability a while ago, and they had tested it out by throwing an inflated version of her into a river. Jerks.

(But she still loved them anyways.)

"I can't get my balance right!" she frowned. "But once I get used to this body, I'm gonna beat the crap outta you two!" They really were a bad influence; so far her repository of curse words had grown to include illegitimate children and butts. Sooner or later she was going to be cursing all of her enemies to death while they flinched at the dirtiness of such a cute little girl!

"As usual, Luffy lost to both of us 50 times," Sabo said, updating the wooden scoreboard. "Me and Ace are at 24 to 26… dammit, so close!"

"Hey Sabo, can you at least give me a point for beating myself?"

"Sure," he replied, and drew a small table in the corner of the scoreboard, writing one "L" and a "1."

"You know that just makes you seem more pathetic, right?" Ace commented.

"Shut up! When I'm ten, I'll kick your asses!"

"We'll be thirteen by then," he said. "Come on, let's go get dinner."

Luffy's mood immediately brightened. "Yay! Food, food!" she cheered, jumping up and down.

"Let's get crocodile this time, Ace."

"Yay! Crocodile meat's tasty!"

"Any meat is good meat to you, Luffy," Ace pointed out.

"Not _all_ of them are!" Rotten meat tasted yucky!

"Sure, sure, just try not to get eaten this time, k?" Sabo warned her.

"Shut up, that was you two's faults and you know it!"

Luffy was at least glad that she wasn't the person she was before this life anymore. She still had a long way to go before she was Monkey D. Luffy, but she had time, and her friends would be with her every step of the way.

But they could seriously be annoying as fuck sometimes.

* * *

"This is ramen?" Sabo asked.

Luffy examined the noodles closely. She knew what ramen was, of course, but she had never eaten it before, not in this life nor the one before. When she, Ace, and Sabo had snuck into the central district of Goa Kingdom to sell crocodile skin, she didn't know what to expect. Ace had promised both of them a great lunch of ramen, and she had recognized the name immediately. In her past life, she had heard many times over and over that it was an unhealthy food choice that one shouldn't eat too regularly, so she had avoided it. But now she was here with her friends, and they wouldn't judge her for her food choice. Heck, Ace was the one making them eat it in the first place!

However, she knew that something would be happening soon. In order to be allowed inside the restaurant, Sabo had pulled out a noble's pocket watch – his _own_ pocket watch – which caused the waitress to lead them to a VIP room all by themselves on the fourth floor. Ace had bought Sabo's excuse – "I found it lying on the ground somewhere" her _ass_ – but Luffy knew better.

Hesitantly, Luffy broke her chopsticks, picked up a noodle as it were an alien, and then slowly placed it in her mouth. On Ace's other side, Sabo was doing the same. In unison, their eyes lit up in pleasure and they started to shove the noodles into their food holes at alarmingly inhuman rates, but Ace only grinned knowingly.

"Told you it was good, didn't I?"

Sabo answered him, but Luffy only gulped down the rest of her soup and started to yell, "More–" and Ace slapped a hand around her mouth. He and Sabo furiously ignored her puppy-dog eyes and waited until they finished their bowls for Sabo to call, "Three more bowls of ramen, please."

This process repeated several times, and Luffy's stomach had started to expand. Eventually, their streak was broken off once the head chef demanded to see the customers that were enjoying his food so much, and walked in to see three children scarfing down his ramen – three _very_ infamous children.

Caught red-handed, the three jumped out the window with the chef calling " _Come back and pay for your meals!_ " while mourning the loss of 51 bowls of ramen. The police went to chase after them, but the trio stayed a good ten meters ahead of them while escaping. Really, those people really needed to step up their game if they were having trouble with 7 and 10 year olds. Even the local thugs stood no match for them! Luffy wanted a challenge, but was still proud that they were basically the local menace of Goa. A future tourist attraction, for sure.

They were making their escape when someone suddenly called, "Sabo?! I thought it was you! Stop, you have to come home!" In front of her, Sabo twisted to look back at the man and he paled. Luffy, who was always at the back of the pack, noticed his horror. Oh, so that was his dad. He looked ugly, the ugly bastard.

"Sabo! Someone's calling for you!" Ace told his best friend.

Turning his gaze back to the front, Sabo just replied, "He's got the wrong person! Let's hurry up and ditch this place!"

* * *

"I'm not hiding anything!"

Luffy frowned; Sabo was being too stubborn. They had started trying to pry information out of him the minute they escaped to the woods, but he had kept his mouth shut. Ace was doing his best to convince him without resorting to violence, but Sabo had not given in yet. Of course, she already knew what he was hiding, but Ace didn't know and she couldn't randomly know his past out of nowhere.

She sighed inwardly. She had no choice but to use _that_.

Her face turned serious. Ace, who was about to grab Sabo, had noticed, stopped, and gave her a questioning glance. The victim blanched as he realized what his youngest friend was about to do. He had to turn his gaze away, before–

"Pweeeease, Sabo?"

Sabo flinched. It was too late! Of all the things she could use, why did she always have to resort to _that_? Although he loved her like the sister he never had, she always went back to the same old trick that worked every. Damn. Time.

He shook at the sight of those big, watery eyes; that chubby, innocent face; and to top it all off, the fucking _sparkles_! Her short stature that made him want to cuddle her, despite never having any desires to do so before! Dammit, someone needed to put a restraining order on Luffy's puppy-dog eyes!

"Okay, I'll talk I'll talk, just stop it with that face!"

"Shishishishi!" Luffy grinned, and stopped making the face. Ever since she learned how to make puppy-dog eyes, she had tried to exploit her cuteness as much as possible. It was the ultimate weapon – even Ace cowered in the face of her adorableness!

Sabo hesitated. "I… I'm the son of a noble!"

Beside her, Ace stuck his pinky up his nose and asked, "So what?" Imitating him, Luffy dug her pinky into her nose and tried to copy his face. It was just so stupidly stupid that she had to try it out! Plus, imitation was a good way to gain cuteness points.

" _YOU'RE THE ONE THAT WANTED TO KNOW!_ " Sabo yelled in a rare outburst of anger. He sighed, then continued. "What I'm trying to say is that I'm not a real orphan. Both of my parents are still alive, and I wasn't born in the terminal, either. The man that called out to me was my dad. Sorry I lied to you guys."

Luffy smiled. Now that it was finally out of the way, all three of them would become even closer now. "If that's it, then I forgive you!" She gave him an adorable smile with a small amount of sparkles – she was trying to work on being naturally cute and being able to change the amount of sparkles at will, don't ask why – and he smiled back at her.

"I'm actually surprised," Ace said. "If you were born as a noble, why did you run away to the terminal?"

"…They never cared about me," Sabo replied after a short pause. "All they wanted was an heir so that they could keep their status and fortune. If I couldn't marry into a royal family, I was worthless. They made me work all day, every day to improve my chances. My parents argued a lot because I wasn't good enough for them. …I never belonged there." He frowned, since this talk had undoubtedly brought up bad memories.

"I'm sorry if you think I'm being rude, but I always felt alone even if I had my family. The nobles despised the trash heap with a passion, but compared to that terrible 'elite' district, where my fate was planned out for me day by day… I rather would've been born in the terminal, without a family."

"So that's the situation, huh?" Ace murmured.

"Ace, Luffy!" Sabo shouted, ripping out of his gloomy mood. His face brightened up, and Luffy jumped at the sudden mood change. "We have to escape to sea one day and get our freedom! Because one day I want to see the entire world and write a book about what I find! Even if I have to study sailing, then I don't care if I die trying! We have to– no, we _will_ get stronger, and we'll become pirates!"

Luffy gazed at him in amazement, and Ace grinned as he stood near the edge of the cliff. "You don't need to tell me that! I'm gonna become a pirate, beat everyone that stands in my way, and rise to the top! I _don't care_ if the whole world rejects me – they can hate me as much as they want, but I'll be a _great_ pirate that'll prove them wrong! I _won't_ run and I _won't_ lose, 'cause when I'm a pirate, **everyone will know who I am!** "

She grinned, but then they turned and gave her an expectant look. She jumped, and when she went up to say her monologue, instead of being blunt and short, she found herself saying something else –something very different than what Luffy-kun would've said.

"I… I'm gonna prove to myself that I-I can be strong! I'll get stronger and stronger so that I can protect my nakama, and I'll be even stronger than Ace and Sabo and Shanks and even ji-chan, b-because," she stumbled around her words. What was she saying? She wasn't supposed to be saying that! Switch tracks already! "I'm gonna become the Pirate King!"

"Of all the stupid things you could say…" Ace said in surprise, while Sabo just laughed.

"You sure have some crazy dreams! But I guess even you get a little nervous sometimes, huh?" Luffy flushed. She hadn't been expecting that outburst, okay? "…But how's it going to work out if all of us want to be captain?"

"That is gonna be a problem, huh," Ace pondered. "I was thinking that you were gonna be my navigator, Sabo."

Luffy smiled. "You can always join my ship!"

" _HELL NO!_ "

"You guys are meanies…"

Ace ushered them back towards the forest, into a clearing with one tree stump in the center. "Well, what happens will happen. Who knows, maybe we'll all start our own crews!" He pulled out a bottle of alcohol from behind a tree, and laid three sake cups on the stump.

"Isn't that Dadan's sake?"

Ace just grinned, and started to pour the sake. "Did you two know? When you drink together, you become brothers."

Luffy grinned. This was the important part! She did have one issue though. "Only brothers?"

"Sisters too, Luffy."

"Just making sure!"

"Even if we don't end up on the same crew, we'll always be connected through this bond!" All three of them picked up a dish, and lifted it. "No matter what happens to any of us, our bonds to each other will never break! Starting today, we're…" Luffy shook in anticipation, and nearly smashed her cup as they brought the three cups together. " **Siblings!** " And they all took a drink.

"Aghhh, it burns!"

"You just had to ruin the moment, didn't you Luffy?!"

"BUT IT BUUUURNS! WATER! WATERRRR!"

* * *

"Bath time! Bath time! Bath time!" Luffy chanted joyfully as she ran into the bathroom with only a towel on. Her new brothers followed slowly behind her.

Usually, she would have bathed by herself, since he and Ace always made the excuse that they were just friends, and friends of opposite genders didn't wash together. But now they were _family_ , and Luffy had been so excited to be able to spend more time with them that they just couldn't refuse anymore.

"You sure she should be taking a bath with us?" Ace asked his brother. "After all, she's a girl." A girl who could be traumatized by the sight of manly parts?

"We're still kids, Ace," Sabo replied. "Plus, I think she's more excited about taking a bath with us than our man parts. There's also the fact that she'd probably drown without us."

Ace looked away shyly, and Sabo could've sworn he was blushing. "Yeah, but isn't it… you know, _wrong_ for us to see her naked?"

Sabo paused in confusion, but then an idea popped in his head. They were nearing _that_ age, weren't they? "You aren't… _attracted_ , are you?" he asked in disbelief.

Ace spluttered at his nonsense. "Me? With Luffy? No way! …But, you know, I've never seen a girl naked before. What if she _traumatizes_ me?"

"I doubt that a girl's lower regions is _that_ horrifying, Ace," Sabo drawled. "I've never seen you so anxious in my life… are you sure you aren't having a very different problem?"

" _HELL NO!_ "

"Ace, Sabo, hurry up!" Luffy called. "Oooh, a rubber duck– UWAHH!" There was a crash, followed by a splash, and then some gurgling as she started drowning. In the tub. _Already?_

Sabo and Ace rushed into the bathroom to save their little sister, and they ran in to see her lower half sticking up from the tub as if she had fallen backwards. Her arms were flailing above the water, a rubber duck in one hand.

Sabo could practically _hear_ his brother blanching. "What _is_ that thing?! It's worse than I imagined!"

"Just ignore it!" He thought it looked quite scary too, but they had more important things to worry about right now, dammit!

Together, they grabbed Luffy by her legs and pulled her out of the tub. She gasped for air. "That was close! I thought I was gonna die!"

He whacked her over the head. Couldn't she at least be a little more serious? "Wait until we're in here before you do anything stupid again!"

She pouted. "Sorry, but I wanted to play with the duck! We could have duck adventures together!"

His anger faded in the face of her cuteness. No one could stay angry at her for long when she was like that, and Sabo sighed. "Just be more careful next time, k?"

"Okay!"

"Well, let's get started already. Ace, you can take the tub fir– …Ace?" Why was he in the corner?

"S-So… terrifying…" Ace whimpered in the corner on his hands and knees. He had a look of complete terror on his face. Wha–? Really?!

"What's up with him?" Luffy asked. She was completely unaware that she had given her brothers a full view of her lower parts and shocked Ace in the process. If she had realized she had just exposed one of the most private places of her body to her brothers, she would probably have blushed, screamed, and ran to hide. Alas, ignorance proved to be bliss.

(Luffy was actually fully aware of that fact, but was too amused by Ace's reaction to be embarrassed.)

The blond face palmed. "Just ignore him for now, Luffy. Let me wash your back first."

"'Kay!" Luffy grinned, and went back to playing with the duck.

"W-What was that thing…?" Ace whispered, and Sabo sighed again. He had a feeling his brother wouldn't feel comfortable around other girls for a long, long time. Especially Dadan.

* * *

"FOOD!"

The trio of siblings swan dived towards the pile of meat, shoving as much food as possible as they could into their mouths. Luffy, who was a rubber girl, was easily able to shove several pieces of meat down her throat at once, and was only rivaled by her older brothers. She guarded the food around her like a lion guarding its territory, and shoved anyone nearby away from the meat. Even Dadan.

Dadan reached out, about to grab one piece of meat – just _one_ , god dammit – when Luffy shoved Dadan's face away using a very greasy hand.

"BRAT, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

"MY MEAT!" Thus the beginning of many "Luffy vs. Dadan"s commenced. That fucking brat – there was no way she would be denied food in _her own_ _house_! Did they think they owned the place?!

In the end, Luffy won. Ace and Sabo laughed as she raged at Luffy, who only grinned in victory. For fuck's sake, she would starve to death if this lasted any longer! They needed to get rid of these kids as soon as possible!

But the three ran to bed before she could beat them up, and Dadan just didn't have to heart to chase after them. It was all pointless in the end, after all.

* * *

"Ace, Sabo! Wake up wake up wake up!" Luffy jumped around. Ace groaned. It was too damn _early_ in the morning for this shit… Next to him, Sabo rolled around, trying to escape the feet of their little sister. Dammit, Luffy usually liked to sleep in! Why was she awake _now_?

Then she went up to him and started shaking him around. "It's snowing! It's snow, Ace!"

"We _get_ it, Luffy…" Sabo mumbled. "Ten more minutes…"

"No! Up, now!"

Drowsily, the two managed to rise from their blankets in the next hour and slowly drudged out the door in warm clothing. Sabo had to force a jacket onto Luffy before she ran out into the snow to make 'snowmen.'

"Come on, Luffy, we need to go hunting," Sabo called. Otherwise she would've spent all day making disfigured versions of them and the bandits.

"I'm coming!" Luffy followed them into the forest.

They reached the ever so present bridge that Ace used to take all the time before the Porchemy incident, and he couldn't help but feel nostalgic. He also remembered the time he knocked Luffy into the valley below, where she was nearly killed by wolves. He grimaced, and focused his attention on his silly sister, who kept bouncing around trying to catch the snow.

"Luffy, stop jumping! You're gonna break the bridge!"

"But there's so much! Look at all the snow!" A vein pulsed in his forehead, and he just continued walking forward.

Then he could hear a crash and Luffy screaming in fear as part of the bridge collapsed beneath her, and he swiftly turned around and dived to grab her hand. He was nearly dragged down with her into the abyss when he felt Sabo grabbing his legs.

"D-Dammit, Luffy! Why are you so damn unlucky?!"

"Shishishi, I thought I was gonna die!"

"YOU'RE MADE OF RUBBER; A FALL LIKE THAT CAN'T KILL YOU!"

"Shut up and stop moving around so that I can pull you up already!" They cowered at Sabo's yells. He was scary when he got mad.

* * *

"Makino! Mayor!" Luffy glomped the woman that had called out to their sister. He had heard of Makino and the Mayor plenty of times, but how in the hell did they find the mountain base? Wasn't it in the middle of nowhere?

"Hello Luffy," Makino smiled. Ace blus– _no_ , it was hot outside! Never mind the fact that he and Sabo were waiting indoors… dammit, narrator! "Don't tell Garp-san we came to see you, okay?"

"I can't believe Garp-san left you in the care of mountain bandits," the Mayor shook his head in disdain.

"Got a problem with us?" Dadan sneered.

"'Course I do! Don't give me attitude, bandit!"

"Are all people from your village so annoying?!"

As the two started arguing, Makino pulled out a shirt from her basket. "I don't think Garp-san thought about this when he brought you here, so I got you new clothes!"

"Wow! Thanks Makino!" How long had it been since they had a fresh change of clothes? A couple of months, he supposed?

"You're welcome, I'm glad you like them," she said. "I just have to adjust the length a little, so I need you two to come over here." She beckoned to… him and Sabo?

Sabo grinned, and rushed over to Makino. Wha–? Why was he abandoning him?

He stayed within the safe ground of the house, until Makino called to him. "You too," she said after she finished with Luffy and Sabo, and he finally gave in when he caught a whiff of his own shirt. How in the hell had he been able to live with this smell for so long?!

He flushed as he took off his shirt, not used to be so exposed to such a nice woman. "I heard that Ace-kun was very mischievous, but it turns out you're a good boy, huh?"

His face reddened. Was it possible for someone to be so kind? "N-No, that's not true…"

Sabo and Luffy chuckled. "He's so shy!" "He's blushing!"

"Shut up!" he protested, and moved to teach them who was boss. He was the oldest – they should show some respect!

"You can't move!" Makino scolded, and he went back to his previous position. He could only give them a scalding glare.

"I'll get you two later…!" But they just continued laughing at him! Damn those two!

* * *

Before dinner that night, Makino pulled him and Sabo over to the side, presumably to give them a "talk." Embarrassingly, she had to bend down on her knees in order to talk face to face with them, and he blushed when he realized the height difference, and how close the… the _thing_ was to him.

He shook in slight fear, and Sabo gave him a look that said, ' _Really? You're thinking about the thing right now?'_

Ace replied with a look that defended himself, ' _I can't help it, okay? Luffy's thing was freaking terrifying!_'

Sabo rolled his eyes. ' _It's a natural body part; imagine if we were girls and Luffy was a guy and how we'd react if we saw the male thing._'

' _That's completely different and you know it,_ ' Ace protested. ' _Like, I guess having an extra thing poking out of your body would be kinda weird, but girls get a hole!_'

' _We technically have holes too, you know,_ ' Sabo pointed out.

' _Yeah, but girls get an extra hole,_' he insisted. ' _That makes them the weirder gender._ '

Sabo just sighed. It was pointless to argue, since Ace was _clearly_ the more reasonable brother. Sometimes he wondered if Sabo was simply an idiot.

(Meanwhile, Makino watched the two boys' silent communication bemusedly. She was especially confused when Ace made a circle using his hands, making it very clear that whatever the circle was, it was bad – _very_ bad. Sabo looked like he was trying to placate an upset child that thought the world was a cube instead of a sphere.)

"Um…" Makino interrupted, as she had been kneeling and watching them for almost five minutes. Ace and Sabo jumped at her voice and blushed with embarrassment, realizing that they had been having a silent argument while the lady waited for them to finish politely.

"S-Sorry…" they said, avoiding eye contact with both each other and her. She smiled at them (the kids were so silly) and started her "talk."

"I wanted to thank you," she told them. "Luffy seems a lot more happy now with you two."

"T-That's not true," Ace stuttered. "She's always been goofy and weird."

Makino shook her head. "No, she seems a lot more open now. It's really subtle, but before she came here, even after meeting Shanks-san, she never liked to spend time with kids her age."

The brothers glanced at each other, their previous argument forgotten. Luffy, not wanting to be friends with other kids? Were they even talking about the same _person_ anymore? After all, the first thing she wanted from them was to be friends; heck, she followed Ace for nearly three months just so that they could be friends! She nearly _died_ just so that they wouldn't hate her!

But they didn't tell Makino that, fearing that they would ruin her good mood. She kept giving them that incredibly innocent and grateful smile, which was somewhat akin to that of Luffy's puppy-dog eyes in the sense that they wanted it to stay there – the moment it was distressed, it felt like the spears of a thousand warriors were piercing your soul.

Plus, they wanted to figure out if there was anything wrong themselves. If it turned out the Luffy had been going through a phase, they would get through it together as a family. If it was actually a problem, they would have no trouble beating some sense into their little sister. Or, if it was something else entirely, they would definitely beat the shit out of the culprit once they got their hands on him.

* * *

"Yummy! Thanks, Makino!" Makino was the best cook she knew so far, not counting the future people she hadn't met yet. Her kind demeanor plus her gentle nature made all of the meals she was ever given served with love. She loved how she did these things for her without asking for anything in return!

"I'm going to get the best cook in the world when I'm a pirate!" Sabo declared. He, too, knew how amazing Makino's food was. Luffy wasn't sure if Sanji could ever beat Makino in a one on one cooking battle, but he probably would've let her win anyways…

Ace grinned. "I'm going to become a pirate before you, so I'll get him before you!"

"No way! I'm going to get the best cook! He's gonna be the best pirate cook ever!" Luffy yelled. Sanji was _her_ pirate cook, dammit!

Suddenly, all of the bandits spit all of their food or drinks out. The kids paused in confusion, before there was a loud "Ahem!" behind them – a very _familiar_ one. Luffy and Ace paled, and slowly turned around to see their personal demon.

"…You're still saying crap like that?" Garp asked with a menacing look on his face, and then they spit _their_ food out. _Where the hell did he come from?!_ "WHEN WILL YOU ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOU TWO WILL BE MARINES?!" And then he gave them a powerful punch to the head. _Damn Armament Haki…_

"G-Garp-san!" Dadan cried out in fear and shock, and then she was punched in the head too. "Why did I get hit too…?" she whimpered. For once, Luffy actually felt sorry for her meat rival. Suffering at the hands of her ji-chan was never a good thing.

"You're not teaching the kids well!" Garp claimed. Wait, Dadan was supposed to teach them to be marines? What gave her ji-chan that crazy idea?

Sabo, who had been ignored, whispered, "Garp? Ace and Luffy's grandfather?"

That proved to be a terrible mistake, as Garp turned to him and growled, "Brat, you mentioned something about becoming a pirate, too…"

"His name is Sabo, not Brat!" Luffy immediately protested. No one dissed her brother except her and Ace! "We shared sake so we're siblings now! Don't hurt him!"

"I think you doomed him instead, Luffy…" Ace murmured from his spot on the floor, as he was still nursing the bump on his head.

"Oh, so now there's three idiots who wants some training, huh?" their granddad said, cracking his knuckles. All three of them paused, and then paled.

" ** _AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_** "

(As Makino and the Mayor made their way back to Foosha, they paid no mind to the terrified screams of the children they had just visited. Garp-san was just being Garp-san, after all.)

Eventually they were granted mercy, but none of them were in any shape or form to rejoice, and slowly limped back to the bandit's base with the speed of old men.

* * *

"If we don't do anything, ji-ji's gonna end up killing us tomorrow," Ace told his siblings that night.

"Even if we manage to survive, he'll keep coming at us until we won't want to be pirates anymore!" Sabo said fearfully.

"I don't wanna die so young!" Luffy cried. She hadn't even reached the double digits yet again, dammit!

"There's only one thing left to do," Ace decided. "It's time for us to move out!"

* * *

"Escape successful!" Luffy cheered as they made their way deeper into the woods.

"Dadan and the others aren't chasing us," Sabo noted.

Ace smirked. "I bet she's happy now that her troublemakers are gone."

It started to rain, and they were forced to spend the night in the shelter of a tree root, where they happily dreamed about their independence as they cuddled with each other for warmth.

Sabo woke them up in the morning, giving his siblings a rough plan for their new hideout to protect them from Mother Nature. They excitedly started to gather materials at the Gray Terminal, and over the course of weeks their hideout came together piece by piece. They even built in a steering wheel, as if it were an actual pirate ship, along with their own flag.

"It looks so cool!" Luffy said. Who knew making your own hideout in the middle of the forest would turn out so awesome?

Ace was looking up at in contemplatively, and Sabo asked, "What's wrong, Ace?"

"Since this is a hideout, we've gotta set up some traps!" he exclaimed. Luffy's eyes sparkled. It'd be like a real life secret base! Sadly, she turned out to be more of a self-trapper rather than an enemy-trapper, and her brothers decided that she should just practice her rubber abilities before they ended up with more trapped little sisters than actual traps.

Luffy's favorite place of their new home was the crow's nest. Separate from the main room, it provided a full view of Dawn Island and the ocean beyond. It was the best place to just rest in peace under their flag – not that there was ever a moment of quiet with the three siblings other than bed time. When it was, it was considered a miracle.

* * *

"Do you ever brush your hair, Luffy?" Sabo groaned as he struggled to pull the brush through her black locks without hurting the girl. It was a rare lazy day in the hideout, and Luffy – for once – just wanted to relax. Ace had gone out to hunt something for lunch while she struggled to tame her tangled hair. She couldn't remember the last time she actually tried to brush it down, and the Hat just ended up ruining any of her efforts, anyways.

Then Sabo had stepped in to aid his little sister, as she had been yanking and pulling at her hair for half an hour. He had taken out a brush they had found in the terminal – no doubt abandoned by some rich noble – and started to gently unknot the tangles. That had been almost an hour or two ago, and he was finally reaching the last couple of messy strands.

Ace walked in carrying a sack of meat, and paused at the sight of his unusually domestic brother tending to his unusually calm sister's hair. The Hat was set down to the side to allow Sabo to reach the top of Luffy's head, which gave him a feeling of wrongness. Luffy ignored his questioning gaze and continued to hum a random tune, waiting for the blond to finish while kicking her legs back and forth. Sabo silently shushed him, since if anything managed to energize Luffy again his efforts would have been in vain.

Ace, looking back once more with a confused look on his face, climbed back downstairs to prepare their meal.

Luffy hummed curiously when she felt Sabo pulling back her hair, and was about to turn around when Sabo told her, "Stay still, Luffy." She complied, and she heard the _whish_ of cloth as he tied something around her hair, essentially creating a low ponytail. "That should keep it from flying around."

She reach back to feel a worn down piece of cloth around her hair, and through the corner of her eye Luffy could tell that it was white. Facing her brother, she noticed that he was missing something very important.

"Your frilly thing…?" she realized his cravat was now her hair tie, which on him practically emanated nobility. But it was also a _part_ of Sabo; Sabo wasn't the same without it.

Sabo waved her off. "It wasn't that important. It was one of those stupid noble things, anyways."

"But you look weird without it," she frowned. It made his chest area seem so… empty.

"We can always go get another one from the terminal or steal one or something," he reasoned. "You don't have to worry about it, Luffy."

"I guess…"

* * *

When Sabo woke up the next morning, he was only slightly surprised to only find himself and Ace in the hideout. Usually Luffy would be snoring away in her blankets while they struggled and failed to wake her up, and then proceeded to leave to get breakfast before she leaped out of bed to follow them. However, it had happened several times before. Whenever it did occur it was either because she saw a butterfly, it was snowing, or she saw something 'cool.' And as captivating as it was to her, she never failed to miss a meal – especially ones that included meat. Even if she had been a hundred miles away, she would've sniffed her way all the way back home.

So without worry, he and Ace went out to hunt for breakfast.

When Luffy _didn't_ return after all of the meat was cooked and ready, Sabo started to get worried. So it might have been a little strange for Luffy to be up before them, but she usually came back once the fire had already started burning and waited to grab the biggest piece.

 _So why was she missing?_

Ace paced back and forth around the food, his meal untouched. Even _Ace_ could tell how bizarre these turn of events were, and he kept glancing around the forest, expecting Luffy to come running out from the trees, carrying some type of bug or item.

They waited for several minutes before their little sister actually _did_ come running out of the forest with something in her hand, her hair strewn all over the place from running so much. From the direction she had come from, it appeared that she had gone to the terminal.

Ace immediately went to scold her. "Where did you go?" he asked. "Do you know how worried we were when you didn't come for breakfast? Dammit Luffy, you _never_ miss a meal and I thought something had happened to you or something–"

"I went to get something," she grinned, holding up a piece of white cloth, unstained and relatively new. She _didn't_ – "Sabo gave me his frilly thingy for my hair, so I went and got another one for him!" His sister then walked over to him and held out the cravat as Ace watched with slight surprise and confusion on his face.

"Luffy, I told you that I didn't need another one," Sabo reminded her. She looked so dirty and tired. Just where did she get this from?

"You said that we could always steal one, so I went and got one from Goa," she said, and her brothers gaped. Infiltrating the kingdom together was always a piece of cake, but the dangers rose dramatically when one of them was alone! And to get such a new and expensive-looking cravat all by herself… she must have stolen it from a noble! She could've been caught and executed! What the hell was she thinking?!

He prepared to yell at her for being so stupid _again_ , but then stopped himself and calmly accepted the cravat. "…I said _we_ , Luffy. Next time you wanna get into Goa, make sure you go with one of us at least, okay?" She _had_ gone through all the trouble to get one so similar to his previous one, and managed to keep it clean while running away. He could tell by the dirt on her clothes and the scrapes on her skin that she must have had quite a few close calls; it was too late to reprimand her for this.

"…Okay!" Luffy answered after thinking a little.

Walking up behind her, Ace knocked her upside the head. "Don't be so stupid ever again! It's just a freaking piece of cloth, for fucks sake!"

Luffy just laughed at him, and ran towards breakfast. "I'm so hungry! Fooooood!"

As his siblings rushed towards the food, Sabo took one last look at the cravat in his hand. He seriously wondered how Luffy had been able to keep it so fresh and clean while running away… because of course, there was no way she could've stolen it without making a ruckus. His little sister was far too direct for stealth, after all.

" _LUFFY! GIVE ME BACK MY FOOD!_ "

"But I'm _hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!_ "

Jumping out of his thoughts, Sabo realized that Luffy was stealing all of the breakfast – if he stood there for too long, there wouldn't be anything left to eat!

Deftly tying the cravat back in its usual spot, he yelled, "LUFFY, DON'T EAT ALL OF THE FOOD!"

He sighed inwardly. He would have to fix Luffy's hair after this, too. Again.

* * *

 **Gomu gomu no** **:** **Whenever Luffy yells out the name of a rubber-based attack, he yells, "Gum Gum" in reference to his devil fruit. "Gomu gomu" is how it is pronounced with a Japanese accent. I find that "no" is used to show that a previous word or phrase is an adjective/description a lot. For example, Luffy's epithet, Straw Hat Luffy, is stated as "Mugiwara no Luffy" in Japanese. The "no" is used to show that "Mugiwara" is describing Luffy. Same with Zoro and many other wanted people. "Kaizoku Gari no Zoro" and "Kuro Ashi no Sanji" – respectively, Pirate Hunter Zoro and Black Leg Sanji – are two other examples. I'm not sure if that is the correct definition for it, but as someone who has watched many, many anime in Japanese, that is how I've observed it as. "No" is used in many other ways, but this is the only definite way I know it's used.**

 **Cravat:** **According to Google, it is** **a short, wide strip of fabric worn by men around the neck and tucked inside an open-necked shirt, basically a necktie. When I looked on the wiki to read Sabo's appearance, the frilly necktie thing he wears is called a cravat. If you search up the untied version of it on Google Images, it kinda looks like it could be used as a ribbon.**

 **I'm not so proud of the beginning, mainly because I was trying to get through with their sibling bonding and I struggled to make sure it wasn't word-for-word from the manga. I do try to make them more original, though, by adding my own little things. The "Only brothers?" bit was inspired by CockyBrat45's Surprisingly Addictive prologue. I highly recommend it; it is mainly humor and I love every bit of it. Too bad it hasn't been updated in a long time.**

 **Haha, Luffy's trying to become a master at being cute! Ever since she's learned the puppy-dog eyes, it looks like she's been trying to learn some advanced skills in order to bring people to her side. I guess she's trying to obtain Luffy-kun's charm by being adorable, that sneaky little girl.**

 **I also gave my own twist to certain scenes in the manga from Oda's transitioning. I especially loved how I changed the bath scene, and that little 'silent' argument between Ace and Sabo I put in. I did go a little overboard with that, I have to admit, but it was hilarious and I'm sometimes I'm just a natural comedian. Since Sabo has been educated quite a bit already, I assume that he would already have some knowledge about the human reproduction system, so he isn't as bothered by Luffy's "thing" as much as Ace (haha).**

 **The way I view Sabo is that he's is polite and calm, as well as responsible and sensible, but you probably wouldn't want to make him mad; basically, he's very mature. He is still a kid though, so he does have his silly moments and slip-ups.**

 **So Ace and Sabo are starting to get a little suspicious... if they ever act on it, who knows? Sh** is going down next chapter, after all...**

 **Feel free to tell me anything that bothers you, and have a nice day!**

 **\- Kana-chan**


	6. Chapter 5

**I have returned!** **I really am sorry that writing this chapter took way longer than it should have. I did manage to brainstorm a bit, but I just struggled with typing it all out once I got back, and then I started procrastinating. If you want an excuse, here it is:**

 **Blah blah blah, computer games, blah blah blah, catching up, blah blah, event, blah blah, new character, blah blah blah, got bored, blah blah, started writing again, blah blah, _blah_. **

**There. Happy? ...Wait, you didn't want any excuses? Well it's a good thing I gave you the short version then.**

 **I don't really like the first part, since I wrote it before I left, but whatever. It works.**

 **Obvious disclaimer is obvious.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

Now he could understand how Luffy felt when they tied her up to that tree. Except she was stupidly happy at the time, and in the end, he _still_ has to save her.

The day before, the hideout had been heavily damaged by a random storm. He, Sabo, and Luffy had struggled to keep the place together as much as possible, and their little sister nearly got blown away while keeping a hand on their flag. Ace had fallen halfway through the floor where there used to be a wooden board, and they had a new window where there used to be a wall.

The three of them had to find supplies to fix their home at the terminal. On the way there, Luffy kept talking about how she hoped to find a cool necklace (he had no idea when she got into jewelry, maybe it was one of those times they snuck into Goa?). Only half-paying attention to her excited fast-speech, he could tell she wanted one with an arrowhead. The first question he asked was, "Why an arrowhead?"

"Because arrows are cool, and you can stab people with it," was her answer, and he face palmed. First of all, who would put an actual arrowhead on a necklace? Second, why would she want to _stab_ someone with it? And third, how would they ever find a necklace capable of stabbing someone?

…Sometimes Luffy was too crazy for him to even _try_ understanding her.

An hour or two into gathering supplies, he and Luffy heard a fight starting from Sabo's direction, and they charged in like wild bulls right into a pack of wild Bluejams. While it was somewhat surprising to see the main man himself, he couldn't help the excitement that had boiled up when he spotted the captain. They had been reenacting this moment for months – the day they'd go against a real pirate crew. They were going to annihilate the Bluejam Pirates, and prove themselves to be worthy of the pirate world!

Grinning like maniacs, the trio jumped into action, easily knocking down pirates left and right. It only took a hit for each crony that came at them foolishly, and a few more for those who were more skilled or knew more about them. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Luffy head-butting a man – who had hit her with a club, not knowing her Devil Fruit power – in the balls. He winced; sometimes, his little sister was just too cruel.

Bluejam, being the only smart one in his group, pulled out a pistol and fired a shot just inches away from his foot. Quickly, he and his siblings ducked for cover – except _Luffy_. For a reason he didn't know, she hesitated for a split second before idiotically deciding to continue running forward, while Bluejam continued to shoot at her.

He jumped up to save his sister from certain death when she was shot before his eyes. His little sister. Shot. Injured. _Dead_. Time seemed to slow down as she was physically thrown backwards due to the strength of the bullet, as if it meant to mock his uselessness – his inability to rescue his own family.

Ace was fully prepared to yell in rage and charge in to avenge Luffy's – _Luffy_ , when her body skidded back a few feet and miraculously stayed standing. In fact, it appeared that it was struggling to stay up, and then he noticed the stretched skin, as if the bullet had no effect on – _that was it_! She wasn't dead, nor did she get hurt!

…Because bullets were **blunt** , weren't they? The reason they usually lodged into one's body and caused damage was due to the speed it was propelled, kinda like how he could break a boulder using his fists; but since Luffy was made of rubber, it didn't work!

Luffy grinned as the bullet was launched back towards Bluejam. "That doesn't work!" Somehow she also managed to look partly relieved and surprised at the same time, as if she wasn't even sure that move would work. _Goddammit Luffy…_ She was going to give him a heart attack one day!

Suddenly, someone grabbed him from behind, and from Sabo's yelps he could tell that someone had grabbed him too. Luffy paused and turned around while she was running, which allowed her to be captured as well. They had been all caught in the giant arms of the Bluejam Pirates – dammit, they thought that their smaller sizes would be an advantage, not a hindrance!

Then the freaking soldiers from Goa, and of all people, Sabo's _dad_ appeared from… somewhere. He could've sworn that they were all ninjas if not for the fact that this was a noble and his henchmen they were talking about. Snotty nobles did not do ninja. Even if they were ninja, he would never admit that.

"Didn't hurt him a bit, master," Bluejam told the noble, and Ace's face twisted in disgust. For a pirate to bow down to a filthy noble…? Did they have any pride?

"Dammit! Let me go, bastard!" Sabo yelled as he was carried away.

"So these are the ones that tempted Sabo into evil," the man commented, and Ace's temper flared. The only reason Sabo had run away in the first place was because of scum like him!

"Give Sabo back!" Luffy yelled, struggling with all of her strength. "You can't take him away!"

"What do you mean 'give him back'? He's my son; it's the child's duty to obey the parents that caused his existence," he told her sternly. "How dare you make Sabo run away, you brats?! Are you after my money?"

"What'd you say, bastard–?" Ace started, and then his face was met with the ground. He could feel the rock scratch his forehead, shedding a little blood and he heard Luffy calling out his name in worry.

Then he heard Sabo's father scold, "Pirate, be careful about hitting that kid!" What, did this man actually have a heart? "Now I've got his despicable blood on my face!" …Yeah, he wasn't really surprised. Ace still wanted to punch the shit out of the guy, though.

With a lot of wiggling, his brother managed to slip out of the pirate's hold and protested against his blood father. "Stop it! Nobody tempted me to leave! I ran away because I wanted to!"

"Stay out of this, Sabo! Hey," Sabo's father pointed at two guards. "Make sure he stays still." He turned away, prepared to leave, when he paused, his eyes stopping on Sabo. Ace was instantly on guard; something had caught the man's attention.

"Where did you get that new cravat, Sabo?" the noble enquired, and the siblings paled. Of all the times he had to be perceptive…? And of all things, why was he so dubious about a new tie? "The last time I saw you, yours was all tattered and worn out." _Because you ran away_ , was left unsaid.

Sweating, Sabo replied without fear in his voice, "I found it."

The man's eyebrows rose. "Really, now?" He walked over, and grabbed the tie. His brother was unable to do anything as his father checked a tag on the inside of the cravat. Dammit, why didn't Sabo cut that off earlier? "Aha! I knew it – this was the special edition cravat I ordered a few months ago… and then it went missing." He could see Sabo shiver in trepidation as the noble gave him a searching gaze, and Ace couldn't help but feel afraid too. How had he been able to spot a stolen tie from so far away? How could he tell the difference between a regular one and the one he ordered? Was he psychic?

But one thing was for sure: they couldn't let him know who the real thief was (who knew what the filthy scum would do). Now, if only Luffy could keep her mouth shut…

"Did you steal this cravat, Sabo?" the man's eyes narrowed, tugging his son closer. "You know that it's unbecoming of a noble to steal an item they can easily buy." He placed a firm hand on Sabo's head, forcing the blond to look his father in the eye. The silence in the clearing was deafening.

"I told you to give Sabo back, you ugly bastard!" Luffy called, shifting the tension, and the noble's attention switched back to her. His little sister was being held underfoot now, having proved to be prone to biting in order to escape.

Sabo's father stomped over, irritated, and personally met her face with his foot. Ace and Sabo cried out in surprise. "Shut up already, trash! You're the one that forced Sabo to steal, aren't you?! How dare you make my child commit such atrocious actions?"

"Sabo didn't take the tie, stupid!" Luffy yelled, and her brothers blanched. Was she _really_ going to say it?!

"Luffy, shut u–" Ace started, but she just bulldozed over his warning.

" _I'm the one that took it!_ "

Everything went quiet, and horror dawned on Ace's face. Even some of the men, including Sabo, around them gasped in shock. The noble's face turned an ugly shade of red, and several veins popped out in his face. He gestured to one of the soldiers, who grabbed Luffy by the hair. Several strands were pulled out and fell to the ground, which made Luffy cry out in pain. Her hands shot up to her head to desperately try and free her locks in vain.

"That reminds me," Sabo's dad said coldly, and he could see Sabo shivering at his tone. "You _are_ a criminal, aren't you? And of course, criminals deserve to be punished." He signaled to the man holding Luffy. "Do what you want with her. Just make sure she never bothers us again."

"Yes sir!"

"And I leave that boy to you, pirates."

"Of course, master. You've already paid us, so we'll make sure he'll never bother your boy again," Bluejam answered, and the crowd started to disperse when Sabo cut in.

"Wait!" Sabo yelled, appearing submissive. "Father! I'll obey your word, I'll do whatever you wish…"

What was his brother doing? Was his family full of idiots?! "Sabo, stop!" Ace demanded. Why was he conceding to that bastard?!

His brother ignored him as he walked towards the noble. "…Just please, don't hurt Ace and Luffy! I'm begging you… they mean the world to me! They're my siblings!"

"Where are you going, Sabo!?" Ace shouted. "Aren't all of us going to become free pirates one day? Why are you going with them?

"Shut your mouth!" the man holding him pounded his face into the ground again, but that didn't stop him.

"Me and Luffy are strong; we can't be defeated so easily! Are you going to let our bond be broken just like this?!" He knew that his words weren't falling on deaf ears, yet the blond continued to turn away, back towards the hell that he had fled from.

"Stop, Sabo!" Luffy pleaded, even as the soldier holding her pulled at her hair harder. "You don't have to listen to that bastard! Didn't you say that you ran away because they didn't love you?! P-Please, don't go!" Was she starting to cry? His little sister truly was a crybaby at heart.

Water started dripping off of Sabo's face, and Ace doubted that he was actually leaving them willingly. Why couldn't his brother have more faith in them? Or was he just that afraid of his family?

And as his brother started to walk back into the life as a noble, something dropped out of his pocket. He paused for a split second before continuing past it, visibly crushing his spirit further, and soon the object was crushed under the feet of the soldiers around him.

"I said let me go!" But Luffy was still being taken away! Didn't they already have a freaking agreement?!

Sabo turned back at Luffy's cries. There were tears stained on his face, but now he looked more worried for their little sister than anything. "Father! Please let her go! Didn't we agree…" He stopped his train of thought once he realized something.

"I never agreed to anything," Sabo's father said darkly. "And that brat is just another thief in the hands of the government now." Pushed forward and held by the arms, Sabo had no choice but to continue walking as Luffy was dragged along with him. She struggled, swinging her limbs in every way possible and looking for an opening. Eventually, nearly out of sight, her hands and feet were cuffed and she was tied up with a rope and carried like a log.

"Bastard!" Ace yelled. "Fight me like a man! You don't have any right to take them!" He continued to yell profanities in the direction of Goa and he did his best to claw his way out from under his captor's hand.

"What should we do with him, Boss?" the pirate holding him asked. By now, the entourage that had stolen his brother and sister were long gone, but Ace wouldn't give up. He wouldn't let their bonds be broken so easily.

"LET ME GO! I NEED TO GO AFTER THEM!" Ace continued, but none of the pirates were listening to him anymore.

"Take him back to the base," Bluejam ordered.

"I said… LET! ME! GO!" Ace screamed, and resorted to a Luffy tactic. The man cried out in pain as the boy gave him a skin-piercing bite on the arm, which started to bleed, and Ace ran as fast as he could to Goa. The crony – who apparently had good reflexes despite the pain – reached out with his good arm, snagged Ace's collar, and pulled him back.

"Stay still, brat!"

Ace was shaken out of his rage-driven struggling when Bluejam grabbed him and looked him in the face.

"I've got a job for you to do."

The only thing he had to say a few hours later was "Fuck you."

* * *

So… prison sucked.

Not only did it smell like urine, all of her fellow prisoners were either boring, possibly insane, or a combination of both. Or maybe they just didn't want to talk to a kid – which she _wasn't_ , so she just concluded that they were all weirdoes. Also, the only toilet in her cell was just a hole in the corner, which was probably why everything smelled like human waste.

The only one that had spoken a word to her so far was her cellmate in the corner, a young man with a scruffy beard whose name was Daniel, but he preferred to be called "The Man." After introducing himself by yelling into the air as if he were some mystical being she should bow down to, he then proceeded to proclaim vengeance upon the wall, shaking his fists and spitting saliva everywhere. He cursed it for ruining his life, like the "damn greedy bastards you nobles are!" Holding out his fists, he prepared to attack it viciously, even handing Luffy a pebble as a weapon.

It goes without saying, but Luffy threw the pebble away the moment his back was turned.

If everyone in the jail was this crazy, what the hell was carried out as punishment to make them this psycho? Assuming everyone was like The Man, of course.

She didn't even know what they were planning to do with her, anyways. Execution? Temporary imprisonment? Rape? Torture? What kind of laws did they have in Goa, anyways? If the nobles were in power, and the nobles were stupid, they could have made completely dumb laws. Like, "It is forbidden for you to sneeze during a meal" or something equally stupid. Maybe if she said sorry to whoever they'd let her go free.

Luffy was getting really bored, after who knows how long she had been locked in the cell. She really needed to get out before the terminal was burnt down, otherwise she would die of boredom and Sabo would escape and sail right into the shitty Celestial Dragons. Luffy couldn't wait for the day she'd get to punch one in the face.

But the first thing she had to do was escape. Nearly every other hour, Luffy would stick her head to the bars and look for some stupid guard carrying the key to her cell on his belt, or maybe the keys hanging somewhere within Gum Gum reach. Protagonists always seemed to have logic-defying luck, so she always kept an eye out for the moment of victory.

However, it seemed that Goa's jail guards were not as dumb as the nobles who paid them, since the closest she got to freedom was when a really fat guard distracted himself with stuffing his face with donuts. Who the hell ate food inside the jail, anyways? It made her hungry, dammit, and they had only given her some gooey porridge shit and water every day.

Or maybe she was just stupid. It was possible, since she was Luffy. He was all sorts of stupid, and she's not really surprised that she's starting to become stupid too. That didn't mean she liked it.

Luffy had been doing her best to think of an escape plan, but thinking had gotten difficult once her own thoughts bored her. She had considered waiting until Ace charged in to save her, but she didn't want to be a damsel in distress, and waiting would be even more boring. It was actually amusing to think of the chaos that would ensue once he broke a couple of houses, maybe even send a few people to the hospital. It really depended on how protective he was of her by now, as she could see signs of a blooming little sister complex. Or maybe that was just her imagination.

Inevitable destruction and violence aside, however, she needed to figure out her first steps. She knew that the highest priority at the moment was getting out of her cell, and then back into fresh air. After that, she had to find either Sabo or Ace, get out of Goa safely and then back home.

She paused in her thoughts, ignoring The Man's cries of pain as he threw a punch at the wall. Where was Sabo's house in the first place? Where was the jail even located? And where _was_ she? Was she in Edge Town? High Town? A dumpster? She couldn't be sure, since she and Sabo were separated at the gates, plus she fell asleep the minute he was taken away only to wake up as she bounced off of the cell wall that she was thrown at. They hadn't even bothered taking away her hat – or maybe they searched her while she was sleeping. Or deemed her a helpless child, and decided, "Pshh, she doesn't stand a chance against us." Well, she'd show them!

Well whatever the hell happened, she needed to focus on getting out. Damn ADHD. Subconsciously, she tried to pull up a finger to her nose in order to pick it. The metal handcuffs, although unattached to the wall, were still a bit heavy for her, and her arm stretched a little at her anchor. Either the jail couldn't afford any sea stone shackles, or they didn't know about her Devil Fruit in the first place.

"I'm so stupid!" she berated herself, and then started tugging.

The Man paused at the sight of her literally pulling her hands out of her handcuffs. He raised an eyebrow as she carefully pushed her straw hat through the bars, she herself following soon after. She squeezed out butt-first, only to stop when her head caught on the bars.

She was lucky that the guards were still making their way around another side of the prison, because they would've caught her in a really awkward position, and she really didn't want to get raped. Plus she didn't bother trying to memorize the rotations. The other prisoners gaped at her strange ability, or yelled for the guards. No one came, though. Probably because there was a lot of mindless yelling in the jail already.

Dan the Man silently stood up, shuffled over and started to help her by pushing on her head. After a few minutes of struggle, her head popped out and she flew onto the floor. Just in time, too, because then a guard came from around the corner and started yelling at her, charging overconfidently only with his fists. Luffy grinned, and pushed her hat back onto her head.

After the guard – not the one that carried donuts – was thoroughly beat up, she called, "Thanks, Dan the Man!" before running away.

Before she ran out of earshot, he yelled back, "Save your brother, Luffy!"

(It's only after she breaks a couple of walls, defeats a dozen or so of the guards on duty – including the donut guard, from whom she snatches a donut and eats while punching him in the face – escapes the jail and runs for a few blocks, that she realizes that she never told him her name, or that she had a brother.)

* * *

She was pretty sure that she was in Edge Town. The distinct lack of ugly, rich people and super clean streets were a giveaway. This kinda sucked, because if her memory was correct, then there was another giant wall between her and Sabo. She didn't have enough strength to launch herself over it, nor could she just walk in through the front doors. If the fire hadn't happened yet, security was probably tight (she could vaguely recall guards in weird green suits blocking citizens, from a show she watched a long time ago).

Her face turned red – she was starting to think too much. What could she do? Sneak in? She'd never been to High Town before, and with her ADHD, it would be difficult to make it in without getting distracted. Luffy (both canon and her) just weren't the type of people to beat around the bush.

Inwardly, she congratulated herself for being able to think so far ahead. If she keeps this up, she won't be nearly as stupid as canon Luffy in the future. Hooray for difference!

She probably wasn't this dumb in her previous life, but memories of anything other than One Piece were starting to fade; even her previous personality had already starts adjusting to her new brain. She couldn't remember if her dad wore glasses or not, or what her favorite food was. She wasn't sure of what country she had been born in. Did she have friends? Had her life been heading in a good direction? It's hard to miss something you can't remember.

She sighed, enjoying the freedom of being unchained while ignoring the looks she got from the adults around her. It didn't really matter anymore. Although being reborn as Monkey D. Luffy had its downsides, she wouldn't really give it up for anything. Ace's fiery temper and her stubbornness were the cause of many arguments, and even though he was usually right, they were refreshing. Sabo's mature and calm nature was often the reason they resolved their differences; he was the one she could rely on for more sensitive subjects, though he could be scary when he wanted to, too. His rage was just much more controlled.

She remembered when she stole that tie for Sabo a couple of weeks ago – she had walked into an expensive-looking store that looked like it made clothes for guys, like a normal person, walked behind the counter into a special-looking room, and grabbed the first tie that looked like Sabo's. Ignoring the gaping cashier (they needed better security), she had folded it as neatly as she could, put it in her pocket, and then ran away. If she had only chosen a different one, she wouldn't be in this mess. How the hell was she supposed to know that it belonged to Sabo's dad?

Gazing at the tall wall in front of her, she decides that she might as well try the straightforward way, because you never know. The guards might be on lunch break or something.

Er, breakfast break, she corrects that thought. The sun is rising, and her stomach growls. She can smell a dying fire in the distance, which is a sign of food. She needed to eat something better than a donut.

* * *

The world is burning. It's red hot, and it's made of flames of the dead and the dying.

At least, that's the one Ace currently resides in. Everywhere he looks, there's fire, fire, and – oh look – more fire. It's hotter than the hottest summer day, when all he and Sabo would wear were some shorts and they had to stop Luffy from stripping. Sure, she was only seven, but he didn't really want to see his little sister anymore exposed than needed.

He would kill to have an ice cream right now, though it would probably melt before he could lick it. Even rubber is affected by heat, and his sister would've had five bucketful's of cold, creamy goodness if it were ever this hot. They never allowed her to wear less than regular shorts and a tank top, and on those days she'd complain how unfair it was that they got to wear less than her, and he had blushed at the unintentional innuendo. Being smarter than the average ten year old had its downsides sometimes.

He missed Sabo, but he would never admit it out loud. He couldn't be sure whether or not Sabo had left willingly. His brother knew that they could've easily taken them all down, but he chose to go back instead.

Maybe, in the end, it was better for Sabo to remain a noble. There were a lot of more opportunities for him as a wealthy and educated citizen. Why would he need two little orphan kids who played pirate in the woods?

(He definitely wasn't jealous at all. He didn't wish that he was born a normal child, the kid of a normal dad and a normal, living mother. He didn't wish that he had the chance to live a normal life, without the baggage of evil blood. He didn't wish that he had the chance to be free, without the hatred of millions of people on his shoulders, just because of a man he didn't know. No, not at all.)

The Bluejam Pirates are nowhere to be seen, but now that he's finally escaped, he only has one thing on his mind: rescuing Luffy. He had been tied up in the pirate base for nearly a week, give or take a few escape attempts, and then they had to go and set fire to the terminal. Granted, he's not very surprised at random evil-doing, since they're pirates, but to destroy an entire town? Was this decided on a whim, or was there a purpose to all of this?

People are panicking; he can hear yells in the distance. But his first priority is to make it inside the city, where Luffy is. He meets several dead ends and a few close calls, but gets closer and closer to the gates, yet he's still too far. His breathing is labored – the fire is stealing all of the oxygen, and there's a breeze that makes it burn stronger and brighter. His body is drenched in sweat, the soles of his feet burn, and his hair is sticking to his face.

"Not running away, huh?"

Looks like he's found the Bluejam Pirates again. Wonderful, but how strange, he would've expected them to have run away, after causing such a massive disaster. And there's a lot less of them than usual.

Ace glares. "Why are you numbskulls still around? Weren't you going to make a grand escape as you laughed at the deaths of hundreds of people from the ocean?" Pirates, whether strong or weak, were usually cowards. He resolved to never be as shameful as them.

"Shut it, brat!" Bluejam yells. "Do you even know how much we're suffering right now?"

"I couldn't care less, bastard."

The pirate captain just continues. "Who would've thought that we'd end up on the bottom, just like all of the trash running around tonight? But humans are weird – we can't help but laugh 'till the end!"

Ace grits his teeth. With such a humongous fire around them, there's no other way for him to head to the gates but on the path they're blocking. If he runs, which he most certainly doesn't want to do, he has to find another path to the city, and risks getting trapped by the fire. Or worse, they of suffocation from smoke. He isn't afraid to fight the men in front of him, even if he's outnumbered, but it would take up quite a bit of time. He can't predict how fast the fire will grow, or how much longer it will take him to get into Goa. The flames have forced him to take an indirect route so far, taking up more time than he would've liked.

He doesn't know how much time he has left. He isn't sure if he's thinking about himself or Luffy, but Ace knows that he needs to hurry the hell up.

"I don't care what happened to you, or what's going on with your shitty brains right now. I want you to move the fuck out of the way for me," he orders, and the pirates laugh.

He can just imagine what they're thinking: " _A brat, ordering us around? He doesn't have the power to back up his words!_ "

But he's been beating up adults since he was five, even without Sabo. He was trained in hell by Garp, stolen a shit ton of money from anyone ranging from nobles to thieves to pirates, and some insane criminals aren't going to defeat him today. He knows that he can fight them, but he doesn't want a fight. He needs more time, and a clear road.

"Oh, we're not trying to tell a story," Bluejam says. "We just want some company for our last moments. Say pal, don't you want **die** with us?" Hands grab him from behind, and Ace curses his own carelessness. He had been too focused on the situation in front of him and how to deal with it that he didn't make sure his back was safe.

"But hey, we'll do you one last favor," the captain tells him. "We'll make sure your treasure doesn't get destroyed. So tell us where it's hidden!"

"You're burning in hell, but you still have the gall to think about treasure?!"

"If you think about it, it's a waste. If you don't move it somewhere, it's just going to burn up in flames. We'd make better use of it!"

"…If it gets you to fucking leave, I'll tell you." Money didn't matter anymore. They could easily get more; plus, there wouldn't be any 'they' if he didn't get them to leave. So he tells them – he doesn't even bother lying. But they don't let go of him.

"Well?" he goads. "Go on, already." The only thing that answers Ace is dark laughter, and the fire surrounding them seems to grow hotter.

"We're not as dumb as you think, brat," Bluejam grins. "You're probably lying; so you have to lead us there yourself."

Ace is starting to get impatient. "You _are_ fucking stupid! I don't care if you find the treasure or not – you can die trying for all I care! I need to get into Goa!"

"Stop being hypocritical; if you try to get into the city, you're just going to die. They aren't letting anybody in."

Pain blossoms in his gut, and he feels like throwing up. Instead, he spits on someone's shoe. His vision is a little blurry, but a single punch isn't going to stop him. He kicks the man holding him in the stomach, jumping free, and dodges a club coming from the side. Using the opening to his advantage, Ace breaks the pirate's kneecap with his foot. The man crumbles to the ground, and Ace uses him as a springboard so that he can smack another two in the face with his pipe. He grabs them by their shirts and knocks their heads together.

The force from his pull makes him stay in the air for a few seconds longer than he'd like as he makes a curved path back towards the ground. A pirate with a sword takes the opportunity to swing his weapon in the space where Ace is about to fly into. Quick on his feet – or, erm, in the air – he swings his pipe forward to block the attack. The blocks sends him flying backwards, into the path of another swordsman's strike, and he doesn't have time to twist around and do something about it.

Then a fat woman with curly orange hair charges in with an axe, yelling, "You're not gonna win today, ya stinky sea bastards! Lay off of our Ace!"

Dadan, with the rest of the mountain bandits behind her, makes quick work of the crony pirates. Dogra asks about Luffy and Sabo, to which he answers that Sabo is safe in High Town, and Luffy… he isn't sure about Luffy. He just hopes that she isn't in the terminal.

Ace is actually a little glad that Dadan cares, after all.

Then, with all of the courage of a responsible adult, Dadan decides…

"TIME TO RUN AWAY!" She sprints.

"Y-Yes, boss!" The rest of the bandits seem to be a bit startled at the sudden change of tactics, but nonetheless start moving. Ace is the only one that stays where he is.

"Hurry up, Ace! What're you doing standing there?!"

"I won't run," he declares. Sabo had always thought he was too reckless, but there was a _reason_ this time. He isn't being an idiot – not that he ever is one.

A bandit yells, "Don't you understand the situation? Even a kid like you can't take him down!"

"Luffy's been alone in Goa for nearly a week now!" He yells back determinedly. "I have to save her before something bad happens!"

If there was anything he and Luffy had in common, it was their unyielding stubbornness. Though, she often gave up if he bribed her with meat. And he gave up if she pulled out her puppy dog eyes. But most of the time, it was Sabo who calmly stepped between them, attempting to stop the fight with peace. And when they didn't stop, he'd get angry, and they got scared. In the end Luffy sucked up to the blond, so that her punishment would be much less severe than his, that cute, two-timing witch! …Not that she had been on his side in the first place.

What he's trying to say is that you couldn't stop his will even if a sea train went flying at his face. It just isn't happening.

(Unless you proved him wrong. Um, which never happens, because he's always right.)

Dadan makes an exasperated sound, puffing out some smoke, "You guys, go back to the base." Several exclamations of surprise are heard from the bandits, so she elaborates. "This little shit's not going to give in, so I'll take care of him and make sure he gets back in one piece. If you bunch stick around, I'm gonna have trouble herding the lot of you back home."

Reluctantly, the bandits agree. It's somewhat of an oddity for a criminal boss to have so much trust and loyalty from her underlings, but it goes to show how much of a softie Dadan truly is. It's also a bit amazing to see how much they trust in her skill and her word.

If Bluejam thinks that he's going to have an easy win, he needs to think again.

* * *

Ace's arm stings with pain. His arm from the elbow to the tips of his fingers is covered with a nasty burn, from when Bluejam rose from the dead and shoved him into some fire. Luckily, the man had been rather disoriented from the beating he had just received, and only managed to get part of Ace's right arm.

It still hurt like hell, though. It might scar, too, since it was in the flames for nearly half a minute or so. He hadn't been keeping track of the time, since all he remembered had been _it'sburningit'stoohotthere'sscreamingstopitstopit **stopit** —_

Naturally, when you have a burn, the first thing you need to do it to sooth it with cold water. Then you would probably get some burn medicine or whatever, apply it all over the burn, and then wrap it with gauze. He's only guessing, trying to recall that one time Sabo had lectured him about the dangers of fire and what to do if he got burned. He hadn't really paid attention, but it didn't really matter when he had a fat old lady to take care of.

All in all, though, he feels like Dadan had gotten the bad end of the deal. Sure, he was the one that would probably get a permanent mark, but the fight had taken too long. The fire had grown, cutting off all possible escape routes. Her entire body had been burned when she ran through the fire, shielding him with her fat ass body.

There was a little guilt tugging at him, for dragging her into his troubles. She had come all the way to the terminal not only to find him, but also to _help_ him. The only reason he had decided to stay in the first place was so that he could get into Goa to find Luffy, but instead he had only snuck in to steal medicine for Dadan – he hadn't seen any sign of his little sister anywhere. He had barely used any of the medicine for himself, only when he had deemed Dadan in good shape and not in danger anymore.

Despite how much he cared for Luffy, he couldn't turn his back on the woman who had basically saved his life. He couldn't just say, "Wait here while I spend God knows how long looking for my sis" and left her lying there, unprotected. Ace owed Dadan for saving his life, but also for _caring_.

But now that he had finally brought Dadan back to the bandit base, the first thing he was doing was going to look for Luffy. The bandits protested, pulling him back so that they could treat his burn properly.

They were considering tying him down, when Dogra came in with bad news. Trailing behind him was his little sister. Yet, it wasn't. His little sister wouldn't be screaming, trying to claw her eyes out. She wouldn't be letting herself get dragged around by someone who was basically as tall as she was.

To Ace, it felt like everything went to shit.

* * *

 **Extra: Dealing With the Only Other Lady**

So, Ace might've had a slight fear of the female reproductive system, especially when he looked one straight in the face, courtesy of his little sister. Since then, he had trouble looking girls in the eyes, knowing that they all held that monster in between their legs. Thankfully for him, the only constant women in his life were Luffy and Dadan.

But it turned out to be worse than he expected. Learning first-hand about the general image of the um, you-know-what, turned out to be more mentally scarring than he thought, especially when he was a ten year old boy that hadn't even gone through puberty yet. It scared him imagining those monstrosities in the opposite sex, which in a world where there are only two physical sexes, can be terrifying.

Trying to equate the image of one such monstrosity on their caretaker, Curly Haired Dadan, made him shiver at night, especially when he reminded himself that he and his siblings slept in the room **right above her**. When he couldn't rid his head of those images, his dreams were filled with nightmares of naked girls. Which, to a prepubescent boy, is not pretty.

Sabo was the only one in the house that knew exactly what his problem was, but his brother wasn't exactly helping. Throwing exasperated glances and face palming whenever he went into one of his "fits," was _not helping_. He needed counseling, dammit.

"IT'S MY MEAT!"

"IT'S _MY_ FUCKING HOUSE, YOU FOLLOW _MY_ GODDAMN RULES!"

"Why should I listen to you, you fat ossan?"

Ace jumps out of his pondering and refocuses, reaching for a piece of meat before Luffy eats it all. Luffy and Dadan are fighting, yet again, over how much meat his little sister consumes. Rather, Dadan is trying to get her share, and Luffy is resisting.

But he stops himself. What had his sister said? _Ossan_. A fat ossan. An ossan. Ossan…

"PFFFFF– _WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!_ "

"A fat ossan?"

"I'M FEMALE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

His face brightens. He could work with this! It's the ultimate solution to dealing with Dadan, the only other girl in the house.

What made Dadan more horrifying in the first place was her unfeminine looks, and trying to equate the female reproductive system with her had given him migraines. It was a little bit easier with Luffy, since she was incredibly adorable and still female-looking, but it was different with Dadan.

Now he had his solution, and he turned to Sabo to tell him the good news.

The blond raised an eyebrow. "So, instead of trying to imagine Dadan with the _thing_ , which you really shouldn't have been doing in the first place, you're going to pretend that she's a fat old man with man boobs."

" ** _WHAT?!_** " Dadan yelled, flabbergasted.

Ignoring her, Ace nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! I can deal with Luffy having the thing, but try imagining it on Dadan? It just doesn't work. Plus, she looks more like a fat ossan, anyways."

"I! AM! **FEMALE!** "

"You know, maybe instead of being in denial, you should just stop thinking about the thing," Sabo pointed out.

Ace grabbed his brother by the collar. "I _can't_ , Sabo. Don't you know how mentally scarring that first experience was? I can never forget it!" His expression – which was definitely not fake – looked dark and traumatized.

Sabo gave him a bland look. "It was my first time too, but I'm not the one imagining it on every female I come across and scaring the shit out of myself because of it."

Sighing dramatically, Ace moans, "You will just never understand, will you?"

"Understand what?" Luffy asked confusedly, and everyone froze.

…How did one explain to their little sister that her big brother had a fear of the female reproductive system?

(Did she even know what it was?)

* * *

 **Ossan: A term for a middle-aged man. It's a bit rude, but at least Luffy didn't call her ji-ji or something.**

 **!SPOILERS!**

 **Okay, I've always liked how Sabo grew up to become a figure in the Revolutionary Army. He got an entire army looking out and guiding him through the world, helping him comprehend more mature themes in the One Piece world that Luffy-kun never knew before his journey.** **I did like how he inherited Ace's "will" via Ace's fruit, but I'm not really planning on it. While I was gone, I got to decide how I'd deal with Ace's death but not really how Luffy would get to that point, since how I'm planning on writing it is basically the same scenario with a different outcome.  
**

 **And it might also because I'm giving Luffy a hard time...**

 **!SPOILERS OVER!**

 **I'm actually enjoying writing from other's POV. Expect more.**

 **And I just noticed, but in Garp's part** **in the prologue** **I hint at Sabo dying anyways. Before I was really solid about the Sabo Incident, I was thinking of going back to edit it, but when it came out with this I just decided, "Eh, I'll leave it there."**

 **So I decided that the last scene I put in last chapter would put a little significance in this one. It gave me the push I needed for Luffy to get arrested XD Ah, D's have such terrible yet amazing luck...**

 **So Ace's encounter with Bluejam is basically the same as the one in canon, with a few minor differences... also, I thought it'd be funny (ahem, ironic) for Ace to get a burn scar when he's going to eat the Flame Flame Fruit. Imagine those questions in the future. Hooray for creativeness...**

 **I made this chapter shorter than I intended, since I felt like that was a good place to end it. But, I gave you that extra to make up for being slow and cutting it off. Keep in mind that it's before ASL leaves and makes their hideout, and that Ace's fear is a _bit_ exaggerated. He'll get over it in the future.**

 **Next chapter: What happened to Sabo from Luffy's POV, filled with angst, yelling, and sibling bonding. Ish.**

 **What did you think of Dan the Man? I personally like him, he's funny (ahem, insane). What did you think of my mini fight scene? It's not really my forte, to be honest. There's way better fight scenes than mine in the ff dot net community.**

 **One day in the future I definitely plan on making another SI reincarnation story, except it's a female insert as Ace instead (I'm so creative, no?). Though instead I want to give her a more specific previous life, which would tie into her relationship with Luffy. But I feel like right now would be too early to start on it; I don't want to seem like I'm moving on from this fic too soon. I want to start it once I'm further into this one, like maybe from around the Water Seven to Marineford. Of course, before writing that I'd rather edit this story first. The prologue sounds way too cheesy for me to like it (I cringe every time I read it). And a bunch of other parts make me cringe, like Ace's reaction to Luffy getting shot in this chapter.**

 **Hearing your opinion makes me happy, if only for a little bit. Have a great day! :D**

 **\- Kana-chan**


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